#MeToo In India: 75 Professors, 30 Institutes, What Happened To Raya Sarkar’s List Of Sexual Harassers? -Piyasree Dasgupta
Raya Sarkar, in October 2017, published a list on Facebook of men in academia that had been accused of sexual harassment. She compiled this list after being approached by dozens of women some of which wanted to remain anonymous. The weight of coordinating the passage of discussion and respecting the women’s privacy did take a toll on Ms. Sarkar’s personal well being, as is expected. Still she was strong in her will and kept her work going. In the end the list includes 75 accused from over 30 academic institutes (both national and international).
Ms. Dasgupta raises the very important question of ‘what actually happened to the accused after the list containing their names went public’. She tries to investigate the matter by contacting a number of institutes with accused persons and shockingly the replies (if any) were rather disappointing. The lack of responses itself is a matter of concern in such situation but when an institute decides to not take any matter just because there has been no formal complain is also a matter of concern. Though some men did come out guilty and actions have been taken against them, investigations only took place in less than 50% of the total number on the list! This figure is quite worrisome as so much is still hidden from the public eye.
I believe its important that the entire discourse of these matters comes out to the public as it could help many students and faculty identify and tackle any such issues if they ever face one.
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