New Delhi: Days after around 200 students protested against alleged sexual harassment, body-shaming and verbal abuse by a faculty member and three repertory artists in Chennai’s Kalakshetra, the Chennai police have filed a case against an assistant professor Hari Padman. Around 90 students had filed written complaints against the faculty member to the Tamil Nadu Women’s Commission chief on Friday against the faculty member of the country’s most-prestigious institution for classical arts.
Despite the complaints and protests, the National Commission for Women had called these allegations a disinformation campaign to malign the country’s most-prestigious institution for classical arts.
The students had alleged that they had faced years of sexual harassment and racial discrimination at Kalakshetra, and despite their verbal complaints the institution had been indifferent and unresponsive. The students on Thursday wrote to the Union culture ministry G. Kishan Reddy and chief minister M.K. Stalin seeking the institution’s director Revathi Ramachandran’s removal for alleged complicity and inaction in the crime. They also sought the reconstitution of the internal complaints committee.
Kalakshetra Foundation was founded in 1936 by dancer Rukmini Devi Arundale and has grown to become India’s most premier institution for Bharatanatyam dance and Carnatic music.
Because of the recent protests on campus, principal Pakala Ramadas issued a statement saying classes would be suspended till April 6.
The alleged abuse on campus first came to light when a former director – Leela Samson – wrote and then deleted a Facebook post about it in December last year. Her post led to an outpouring of allegations and anger. On March 21, The Print reported on growing disaffection within the student community on how alleged abusers were being protected and even felicitated. Students felt let down by the institution’s attempts to brush the matter under the carpet instead of taking the allegations seriously.
Besides Padman, the three other faculty members accused of sexual harassment are Sanjith Lal, Sai Krishnan and Sreenath, according to The News Minute.