When Narayani Devkota, an assistant professor at the Department of Sociology at Tribhuvan University, was a student at the same institution some years ago, she met professor late DP Bhandari at a restaurant for a conversation. While they shook hands with each other, Bhandari made her feel uncomfortable.
“He rubbed my hand with some wrong intentions for quite some time,” Devkota shared the incident during a recent discussion in Kathmandu, adding that the incident still makes her feel bad.
Stakeholders, students and professors included, confess this is just the tip of the iceberg as far as incidents of sexual harassment occur in the country’s biggest academic institution. Citing many of the cases go unheard, they say it is already too late to introduce an effective mechanism to control the problem.
Everyone suffers
In May, a female staffer of the Tribhuvan University reportedly filed a complaint against Dambar Chemjong, the head of the university’s Anthropology Department, claiming he sexually abused her.
“For many years, I have been abused by Chemjong, he even put pressure on me to have sex,” she reported to the media.
Likewise, around six years back, when Pooja was working on her dissertation, Krishna Bahadur Bhattachan, a senior teacher at the university, offered to advise her at his residence. As reported, at his place, Pooja went through an unusual experience.
While seated on the sofa in his living room, Bhattachan began touching her, running his fingers along her back and rubbing against her thighs.
Reportedly, Bhattachan has sexually abused many other students like Pooja.
While the TU has been unsafe for many of its staffers and students, the university does not have any policy and appropriate modality to control it. According to the students and staffers, despite asking for such a policy and modality many times, the leadership has remained indifferent.
“They do not even take part in discussions about such issues,” says Bindu Pokharel, a professor at the Gender Studies Department, TU. This was evident in the event where Narayani Devkota shared her experience. The Gender Studies Department in the university says it had invited Vice-chancellor Dharma Kanta Baskota and Registrar Peshal Dahal for the event. Both had assured the organisers of their presence.
But, they did not show up.
Neither VC Baskota nor Registrar Dahal responded to Onlinekhabar’s repeated queries on what the university is doing to deal with sexual harassment cases.
“Until such an issue will not be addressed, the perpetrators keep getting the courage to repeat the action,” says Pokharel, adding, “That’s why there must be a place where such issues will be acknowledged. If a perpetrator will be punished, it will alert the other potential perpetrator.”
A threat to the education system
Pokharel has seen many students who are unable to select their thesis supervisor comfortably. They fear being harassed by the supervisor. On the other hand, some male supervisors are also seen worried about whether they would also be accused of sexual harassment.
She complains that the condition is affecting the education quality.
“Therefore, to improve the education quality, we need a modality and a policy to control sexual harassment in the university.”
Pitambar Bhandari, an assistant professor at the Department of Conflict, Peace and Development Studies, also echoes Pokharel regarding the discomfort that students go through while choosing their supervisors for the thesis.
“Many times, students have come to meet me personally and asked not to assign the specific teacher as their supervisor,” says Bhandari.
Arguing for a separate policy and modality to control sexual harassment in universities, he says, “The circumstances in a university are different; the national law cannot address the problems of sexual harassment there.”
Sujat Sharmanear, a PhD scholar at the Gender Studies Department, says students are also disappointed to see that the place responsible to produce a skilled workforce for the country does not have any kind of mechanism that could not control sexual harassment.
“It’s so sad and disappointing to see that to date. The TU does not have anything that could control sexual harassment,” says Sharmanear. “We must initiate the movement that would mount pressure on the concerned authority.”
Combatting ways
Neeti Aryal Khanal, a sociology lecturer at the TU, believes the productivity of work only increases if the workplace is safe.
“Harassment is one of the key reasons behind the low-quality education of the TU,” she says.
She gives some ideas for possible modalities and mechanisms to control harassment in the workplace. According to her, first and foremost, a strong internal policy should be made to prevent and educate people about what constitutes sexual harassment in the workplace.
With that, she also says the policy should be finalised only after wider consultation with stakeholders, students, teachers and other concerned bodies.
“The policy needs to introduce the strongest punitive measure to discourage perpetrators,” she says.
