Kerala: College Teachers Transferred For Backing Sexual Harassment Survivors

teachers transferred: Teachers Transferred: Five teachers who supported students who complained against an assistant professor have been reprimanded by SN College at Chempazhanthy in Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram. Among the five people, three of them have been transferred while two have been suspended. According to the authorities, the action has been taken with the knowledge of the management, Sree Narayana Trusts Kollam.

What is the case?

T Abhilash, an assistant professor of the Department of Political Science in the college, was accused of sexual harassment by six women students of the college. According to them, he sent them inappropriate messages in July 2021. The students first reached out to the college authorities but had to approach Governor Ariff Mohammed Khan in August after the authorities failed to take any strong action.

Veyilpookkal is a platform launched by Manu Remakanth for online interaction of students with teachers. In one of the sessions, students came to know about the Internal Committee under the Prevention of Sexual Harassment at Workplace (PoSH) Act and they filed a complaint against the authorities. The professor denied the allegations and said they were false. He also said that the allegations were a result of one of his fellow professor's grudge against him.

The five teachers who supported the complainants are Manu Remakant, Lakshmi AJ, Remya CR, Lekha NB and Sangeeta Hariaharan. A memo was issued to them before taking the action. The teachers have alleged that they weren't given enough time to respond to the memo, as per a report.

The reason cited in the memo is completely different. It says that the teachers had liked a Facebook post of another colleague who put a post questioning why can’t women drink if men can. The teachers hit like because of the feminist viewpoint but the authorities mistook it as promotion of alcoholism.