Surviving Sexual Harassment Allegation

When Going Gets Tough, TOUGH gets Going! This is the Mantra I used 25 years ago when I faced one of the biggest challenges in my life. I was blamed for a crime, which I did not do. My fault was that I stood for a just cause, and dared to challenge when wrong happened. It was a very delicate and sensitive issue, and could be blown out of proportion if I would have made any small mistake. Thanks to God! S/he gave me courage, wisdom and support (through my friends) to manage this crisis.

 

I was member of Young INTACH-BHU chapter (Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage). INTACH is a nationwide, non-profit membership organization, set up in 1984 to protect and conserve India's natural and cultural heritage. Each chapter was managed by a Convener. In 1988-1989 our chapter decided to organize Varanasi district level debate competition. A young and enthusiastic team spurred into action. I, along with a girl from Women’s college (WC) became coordinators of this event. The team approached almost all schools and inter-colleges at Varanasi. We also invited imminent personalities as jury. On the competition day a huge crowd of students from different schools arrived at the venue. 

Everything was going well, before the girl coordinator announced that she will also participate as a candidate. She informed the Convener, participated and won the first prize in her category. The other participants and their guardians started blaming us that the event is farce and selection is biased. My team members, who were bubbling with enthusiasm few moments earlier by seeing big crowd, went into hibernation. As a coordinator, my situation got worse.

In next monthly meeting I raised this issue. The Convener said that I will get the response in a couple of days. True to his word, I got the response within two days. His people put an announcement on the notice boards of all the hostels at BHU that: ‘Jitendra Sinha from Institute of Agriculture Science, BHU has been debarred from the membership of Young INTACH’. No reason was given. Overnight I became talk of the town (BHU) and students who did not know me earlier started gossiping about me.

My seniors (Mr. Ved Narayan Singh and others) objected on dragging college name in this issue, and they decided that the Convener should be asked to apologise. Subsequently, a group of students entered his hostel room at Brocha Hostel. It was quite a scene. Next day, another notice was put, where he apologised for mentioning my college name, but refused to withdraw my expulsion.

I verbally asked and then wrote letters to the Convener asking him to explain reasons for termination of my membership, which he turned down. Then, I approached young INTACH headquarters at New Delhi for getting a response. They wrote to Convener to explain the reason for termination (with cc to me). He responded that my membership has been terminated on serious charges, as one girl complained against me for Sexual Harassment. I realized that I was leading into a very complex situation, but now there was no turning back.

By this time young INTACH BHU chapter was divided into two factions. The major faction supporting me decided that they all (from Agriculture, Medical, Engineering, Arts, Science, Commerce and other streams) will resign in protest. My friend ‘Bipin’ suggested that resignation letters should be sent to Convener with copy to Ms. Pupul Jayakar (founder Chairperson of INTACH) sequentially, over a period of time. Within two weeks we received letter from New Delhi office that a team from headquarter is visiting Varanasi to address the issue. A meeting date for the General Meeting was announced.

On the ‘D-day’ hundreds of students came to attend the meeting at BHU conference hall. The hall was fully packed and many had to stand outside. It was one of the most bizarre events, as nothing this sort of event had happened before where one student who was blamed for sexual harassment had to prove his innocence.  The girl who had blamed me for sexual harassment (the other Coordinator of the debate competition who participated and won) had disappeared by that time.

In the meeting, headquarters’ representatives asked Convener to explain the reasons of my termination. He reiterated that I have been debarred as there was complain against me for sexual harassment. He further said that the girl who made such complaint was so embarrassed that she went back to home. I was asked to prove my innocence, but didn’t need to speak any word. The students started telling what had happened in the debate competition, and why I was singled out. The girls were more vocal. The sister of Convener said one sentence which I cannot forget for life. She said ‘we know that character of the girl who made the allegation and we know Jitendra. If he would have said this we would have believed, but we cannot believe that Jitendra would have done such thing.’

Finally, I was reinstated and all the members withdrew their resignations. Later, the representative (Ms. Rukmini Sekhar) told me that she came from Delhi to see me, as it was first time in her life that she had such kind of issue. She praised me handling this situation very sensibly.

You may be interested to know that during this period we formed a funny organization and named it ‘FRUSTACH – Frustrated and Talented Agriculture Class House’. Diwakar was first President (PF1), but was toppled overnight by PF2 (President of Frustach 2, i.e. me). There was PF 3 also (Sanjay Lal, now a Senior Scientist at IARI). We need to learn laughing at ourselves during moments of distress. It's the fuel which keeps you going against all adversaries, maintaining your cool.

FRUSTACH vision and mission was simple, ‘frustration is important for everybody’s growth and development and FRUSTACH strive to maintain a certain level of frustration in all concerned individuals’. FRUSTACH weekly meetings were very popular which were organized on a boat at River Ganga. FRUSTACH newsletters were pictorial with handmade cartoons which used to splash all the controversies at BHU. Those were the days! We had such wonderful life at BHU (Waise bhi kabhi apne din the, tha waisa bhi kabhi apna zamana)

Jitendra Sinha

(1985-91, BHU Agriculture)