In the present context of continuing harassment by SRFTI, I had written to minister Venkaiah Naidu and I&B asking them to intervene. Acting Chairperson Amala Akkineni responded asking us for our demands and we have submitted the same to her. It is as follows.
1. Safety of complainants
All complainants except one are still in SRFTI, trying to complete their courses. The complainants are not safe because they are under direct threat from the administration. The Director is ignorant of sexual harassment rules and the problem itself. This attitude reflects in the whole conduct of the institute. In the most recent AC meeting that was convened, it was decided that three students accused of sexual harassment would be allowed to come back to campus.This is when the respective complainants and witnesses are still on campus. Clearly, there is a threat to their safety. Yet even as we are having this correspondence, the AC has made the decision despite protests from the student body representatives. This is the primary problem. Threat is not in the form of physical violence at least for now. It is that every day life of the complainants is extremely difficult. Complainant X is under the fear that her harasser will return to campus any day. Complainant Y has had to live on campus with her harasser professor and student being present on campus. I spent most of my days under direct threat from students against whom i had lodged repeated complaints. These are just a few examples.
As a tradition, our films are never sent to festivals. Our shoots are deliberately disrupted by inaction of professors. While every student handles problems that arise during shoots and other work, we handle those and the problems imposed on us and us alone. This violence in multi-faceted and to tackle this it is not enough that individual problems are sorted.
2. In continuation to what i said above, the larger problem appears to be this. Even after ICC declaring the professors guilty the complainants have no respite from their influence and intimidation. SRFTI seems to think that they are beyond the realm of law because there are two ICCs in SRFTI which is illegal.Secretary Ajay Mittal had made this clear after i questioned him regarding the same in front of Debamitra Mitra, Amaresh Chakrabarty, Debashish Ghoshal and at least a dozen SRFTI members. Yet even today, this 'student ICC' as it is called is considered to be a second ICC and they still make decisions. How can such anomalies even be addressed when SRFTI does not seem to have regard for the law of the land? Not every student is in a position to employ a lawyer and fight a case in High Court. We do not have money or time or energy to do that. For the same reason SRFTI thinks it can go ahead with fooling the law and its students this way. It has to be made sure that these anomalies are sorted. The second ICC with Sanjukta Pahari as chairperson is null and void. SRFTI has to acknowledge this mistake and rectify it.
3. The status of the court case is most important and it has to be monitored. We had repeatedly alerted the administration that the SRFTI lawyer is not performing in court. The lawyer that an NGO arranged for us keeps updating us regarding our case and this is the only way in which we have access to information. SRFTI does not update us regarding this. Providing the documents if required in this context seems a distant possibility. Tampering of evidence aside, how do we make sure that SRFTI even provides the necessary documents when it does not respond to us complainants nor the law? To make sure that this does not continue, every complainant has to be provided with all the documents that they require which are in possession of SRFTI.
4. It is not just awareness programmes that SRFTI needs. Along with awareness programmes, every month, the ICC should convene a meeting of all girls to review the working environment and take measures if required. The student body should have seats reserved for women because the sex ratio on campus is skewed.
5. SRFTI has not drafted a sexual harassment policy yet even though it was one of the recommendations by ICC in their report which found the professors guilty. A watertight sexual harassment policy is the first step towards justice in sexual violence. This has to be formulated under the expertise of feminists and activists as well as student complainants. The power equations and nuances of violence in film schools can only be understood and explained by students and especially those who have faced the violence. This will be extremely useful because it can set an example to other institutions like FTII also where there have been complaints of sexual harassment. This document can be made public and it shall be an achievement and a milestone in the pursuit of gender justice.
6. Most importantly this cycle of abuse has to be stopped. Today we are fighting for the removal of Debamitra Mitra because of a direct conflict of interest. Even if we win, tomorrow, keeping the history of abuse in SRFTI in mind, there is no doubt that another such person will be appointed. Relatives of the professors, people with a history of sexual harassment themselves, all of them can easily find their way into SRFTI and harass girls and complainants. How do we even address this problem. We are students with no power or influence. Transparent appointment of officials, even professors is unheard of in SRFTI. This has to change. If it doesn't our efforts are in vain.
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| Students shooting at Open Air Theatre, SRFTI. Source: SRFTI Website |
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