Teacher in JU cry sexual harassment, hold up result

Mou Chakraborty
Kolkata, March 9, 2007

A LECTURER of Jadavpur University has protested against sexual harassment by 16 students, most of them girls. He alleges they have made him the target of obscene messages — not by SMS but on their answer-scripts.
Monojit Mondol, who teaches English, has protested in three ways. First, he filed a complaint of sexual harassment with the university authorities. Next, he moved High Court accusing the authorities of not taking action. Finally, he has kept the offending answer-scripts with himself and, as a result, delayed the results of 120 students of the MA (optional) exam.
Only 16 of the answer-scripts, most of them of girls, contained the allegedly obscene messages. Among the things Mondol finds obscene are lines quoted from Blake’s poetry. Also, he alleges, students scribbled obscene words.
Mondol bypassed the head of his department and went directly to the registrar, accusing the students of making “obscene comments with sexual implications” and alleging that the comments were addressed to him. Registrar Rajat Bandopadhyay forwarded his complaint to the university’s sexual harassment cell. “We are conducting an inquiry and would not like to comment till it is over,” he said.
Though Mondol has retained only 16 answer-scripts, the result of the entire batch has been delayed. The students were from both the first and second years of the PG course; the optional subject was Modernity and Poetry. The semester exam was held in December and the results should have been out in January. The university could have published the results of 100-odd students, but the students urged the authorities not to put these out till the scripts of the 16 accused were also obtained.
Second year students are the worst hit. The final semester ends in May, after which many of them would look for courses and jobs outside the state. A further delay could make them ineligible.
“The applications of many of us in foreign universities are on hold due to non-availability of result,” said a student, who did not wish to be named.
The lecturer has not shown the original answer-scripts but has sent photocopies to university officials. “We are trying to get back the answer-scripts, which are university property,” the registrar said.
mou.hindustantimes@yahoo.com