The reported complaint of alleged sexual harassment by two female students of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mandi against a faculty member, yet again after a Professor of the institute was removed for a similar complaint some time back has raised question mark on the mechanism to check such incidents.
Two girl students of the institute had made a complaint to the authorities about alleged sexual harassment against a faculty member some time back after which the complaint was referred to Internal Complaint Committee (ICC), functioning in the institute to investigate such complaints.
The Registrar of the Indian Institute of Technology Mandi Dr Kumar Samabhav Pandey said, “We have a zero- tolerance policy in such incidents and the recent allegation of a sexual harassment against a faculty member have been taken very seriously; we are addressing the matter with urgency and diligence as the complaint received about a month back has been referred to ICC which is headed by a senior female faculty member.”
“On the basis of findings of the ICC the report will be submitted to the Board of Governors (BOG) of the institute, which is the competent authority to take appropriate action against faculty members “, he added.
A case of sexual harassment was reported by a female student against a professor also about a year back and the profesor has been removed from the job by BOG on the basis of a report by ICC, recently. The said professor has appealed to the appellant authority (The President of India) against his removal.
Dr Pandey said, “The institute is deeply committed to fostering a safe, inclusive and respectful environment to all members of the community and the Professor in question involved in the earlier incident has been removed from the service.”
“We have been organizing mandatory gender sensitization and anti-harassment training across the campus “, he added.
