The faculties of the top private university North South and public Dhaka University have in recent times come under fire over accusations of sexual harassment in these institutions levelled by students. Two separate incidents caught media attention, an issue the university authorities resolved promptly.
What stood out in both cases is that none of the complainants took the matter to the sexual harassment prevention committee (SHPC) that exists in both universities.
Protocol dictates that under such circumstances, a student may directly complain to the committee or speak to a teacher or the head of the department, individuals who are supposed to direct them on what needs to be done following their complaints. However, the incidents have brought to light that while the committees, mandated by the University Grants Commission, exist on paper in universities across the country, they are in fact quite inactive when it comes to taking action in these cases.
In 2009, the Supreme Court issued an 11-point directive aimed at preventing sexual harassment at educational institutions and workplaces.
The court asked these organisations to form sexual harassment committees to take effective measures to prevent sexual harassment.
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The University Grants Commission (UGC) was given the responsibility to oversee the formation of SHPCs at the universities.
Right now, 42 public universities out of 52 public universities and 71 out of 108 private universities have SHPCs.
According to the UGC, universities where the committees do not exist do not have properly functioning academic activities yet.
Students unaware of committees
Sabina Rahman (not her real name), a third-year student of Dhaka University’s Public Administration Department, was harassed by a junior via Facebook messenger in June 2020.
Getting little cooperation from her teachers, she was forced to lodge a general diary with Shahbag Police Station.
“I wasn’t aware that there is a committee at the university and none of my teachers informed me,” she told the correspondent.
“Since my department was reluctant to take any action against that boy, I went to the police,” she said, adding that the accused received a suspension of one semester from the university.
“I had to withdraw the case due to external pressure,” she said.
A 2019 ActionAid survey found that about 84% of students were not aware of sexual harassment committees at their universities and 13% had only heard about the guidelines.
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Unawareness among students has been marked out as one of the drawbacks of the sexual harassment committees in the joint evaluation report of the UGC and United Nations Women in 2019 and 2020.
Moreover, a number of reports have suggested that a huge number of the students withdraw complaints in the middle of the investigation process.
In addition to that, the committee members lack the competence to deal with the nature of the offence and conduct an investigation about such sensitive matters by maintaining circumstantial requirements.
According to reports, only four universities, three public and one private, have received training in how to prevent sexual harassment by UN Women as a collaborative approach with the UGC and the education ministry.
Meanwhile, the UGC reports that members of such committees have pointed to the lack of financial resources for the committees as a problem because often the victim is unable to travel to the location due to monetary drawbacks.
Awareness is key
It falls within the duties of the universities to reach out to students and initiate a publicity drive to make them aware of the existence of the committees, says UGC Public University Management Division Deputy Director Mouli Azad.
“We have asked the universities frequently to make this information available to the students so that they are informed about where to go if they unfortunately encounter such incidents,” she said.
“It falls under their jurisdiction and I have seen a few of the universities doing so,” she added.
The evaluation report conducted by the UGC is sent to all the universities twice a year, yet there are many universities that did not respond to the evaluation.
Responding to queries on the matter, she said: “The UGC only has the authority to ask the universities to follow the HC directive regarding the committees. If the universities do not cooperate with the follow-up, we officially do not hold any authority to take action against them.”
Meanwhile, the top regulatory body did not share data on how many complaints were received and the status of those complaints.
The amount of progress that was supposed to take place after 13 years of that landmark directive has not happened, says Bangladesh National Women Lawyers' Association (BNWLA) Coordinator Zannatul Ferdous.
It was after hearing a petition by BNWLA that the High Court issued the directives for the formation of the committee in 2009.
Apart from universities and workplaces, the organisation tried to implement the guidelines at the madrasa but the response was quite reluctant if not negative.
“We have visited a lot of institutions and have seen how inactive these committees are,” Zannatul told Dhaka Tribune.
She added that institutions outside of Dhaka especially hesitate to take sexual harassment as an issue under official jurisdiction.
“But it’s not like women there do not face it. On the contrary, they very much do,” she said.
“We have been trying to contact the madrasa board to form the sexual harassment committee, at least at the the ones which provide Kamil and Fazil degrees, but the issue was passed on to the ministry. We are not able to make any intervention in such a major area,” she added.
Covid saw cybercrime rise
According to a survey in 2019 by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, three-quarters of the country's women were victims of cyberbullying and the situation deteriorated during Covid-19 as the harassment shifted to the virtual world.
Although the UGC claims not to have much information on this due to lack of access with the universities due to Covid-19, it was reported in many instances that students were facing harassment in different forms online by fellow students, teachers, or staff.
Dr Sufia Islam, Associate Professor of East West University (EWU) and convenor of the sexual harassment committee of the university, admitted to the matter.
“We have received a great number of complaints during the time of Covid on this matter,” she said.
“I personally didn’t expect that this could happen but the nature of offences changes according to the use of technology. But EWU has been very prompt and efficient in taking action in this manner,” she added.
She said that the university had addressed each and every complaint and taken action against the accused according to the nature of the offence.
