Open Letter to Khalsa Aid - Inappropriate Behaviour Following Rape and Sexual Harassment Complaint from Woman Against Khalsa Volunteer.
Hello,
We are writing to you after being contacted by a woman with a complaint of rape, sexual and emotional harassment at the hands of a male volunteer by the name Jeevanjyot Singh. The manner in which you have responded to her complaint is highly irresponsible and unbecoming of an international charitable organisation such as yours. We are therefore forced to make the complaint letter public and point out how you have failed a woman who came to you seeking justice by protecting the harasser.
On 1st October 2018, the complainant tweeted Mr. Ravinder Singh, founder of Khalsa Aid. She was contacted by Mr.Gurpreet Singh, manager of the Khalsa Aid office in Patiala. The nature of the call was 'intimidating' according to the complainant and she was made to feel extremely uncomfortable as Gurpreet Singh then started following her stories on Instagram. We urge you to look into this conduct of Mr. Grupreet Singh after he asked the complainant to give him details of the accusations etc. over phone. This amounts to stalking and is a serious offence especially when the perpetrator was someone who was supposed to help the woman regarding her complaint of rape and sexual harassment. This intimidated the complainant and forced her to delete her tweets mentioned earlier.
Since Gurpreet Singh did not get back to her regarding the complaint, she was forced to contact him again. This time Gurpreet Singh told her that Jeevanjyot Singh was not 'an ambassador of Khalsa Aid or any officer of Khalsa Aid. He’s our volunteer and If he does something wrong while being on a mission that makes us responsible to take action but that’s his personal life and if it’s something about Khalsa Aid then kindly text me or Amarpreet bhaji anytime. But If it’s your personal problems with Jeevan then we are not even interested to listen to anything.”
This behaviour is further harassment, cruel and highly irresponsible to say the least. Young women like the complainant who approach your volunteers like Jeevanjyot Singh to know more about your work and activities in Khalsa Aid are your responsibility. Sexual violence and any form of harassment perpetrated by one volunteer on a person is not a 'personal' problem as your employee suggested. It is Khalsa Aid'd responsibility to ensure that a safe work environment is provided to its young women who get in touch with you or your volunteers seeking mentorship or aid. In this regard, you absolutely failed the woman. It is on top of that that your employee Gurpreet Singh insulted the victim calling it a 'personal matter'.
In one of the e-mails she received from Khalsa Aid, she was told that Trustee and General Secretary Balvinder Kaur Sandhu would call her to "discuss this
case" and "inform me of their actions". Balvinder Kaur Sandhu who also happens to be the CEO’s wife, then spoke to the complainant only to say that the violence and harassment she faced was just a 'break up'. She was told that the accused had 'given his word' that he would not contact or abuse the complainant or use any of her personal information. This is nothing but laughable - the action that was taken against a sexual harasser is to make him 'promise' that he will be good!
Balvinder Kaur even told the complainant that the 'relationship' was a consensual one and that she should not be talking about her "physical relationship" with the accused. We are shocked at this statement made by an employee while discussing the matter of rape. Truly, Khalsa behaved like a Khap panchayat at this point. Most of the incidents of rape even took place when the accused volunteer was on trips for Khalsa.
As the complainant rightly puts it in her letter to us, "The reason why I’m writing this to you is to inform you about how a volunteer who Is associated with such a reputed and worldwide recognised organisation like KHALSA AID can so easily get away with man-handling, gas-lighting, showing his machismo, manipulative behaviour by emotionally, mentally and physically harassing me... This clearly shows how they [Khalsa Aid] are least bothered if their volunteer like Mr. Singh is involved in a misconduct with a lady but all that matters to them is their reputation and their volunteer's clean chit image. Khalsa Aid as an organisation works on the name of humanity and their main motto is 'Recognise the whole human race as one'. However, I, as an individual who makes up a society by being a part of the human race feels, that a volunteer is not capable of holding a position when he fails to abide by the motto of the organisation of which he Is a very reputed member of."
Most of the exchanges mentioned have been documented. The stalking committed by employee Gurpreet Singh after she made the complaint also has digital evidence. As you must be aware, her complaint of rape and sexual and emotional harassment was furnished with all kind of evidence when she wrote to you.
We request you to take immediate action against the accused volunteer Jeevanjyot Singh as well as the two employees Gurpreet Singh and Balvinder Kaur Sandhu who misbehaved with the complainant and further harassed her after she made a complaint of rape and sexual harassment. This is directly in violation of the Sexual Harassment Act, 2013. We hope you rectify your mistake and come out in support of the complainant who bravely fought harassment in her workplace.
We are making public her complaint so that people understand the seriousness of the matter that you ignored. Slight edits have been made for the ease of reading. Some names have been withheld.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZlJ-05zVZGfkSozG1mWHXuRfh_YHtoCEeBiBmxJupZw/edit?usp=sharing
Thanks,
WASH
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