Torment: Sexual Harassment at workplace, victim immolate herself outside the Delhi Chief Minister's Office (Episode 317-318 on 29th-30th Nov 2013)

PART 1







PART 2







The Inside Story

NEW DELHI: Pavitra Bhardwaj (40), who tried to commit suicide by setting herself on fire in front of Delhi Secretariat, succumbed to her injuries on Monday morning.



Pavitra, who was dismissed from the position of laboratory attendant at BR Ambedkar College in 2012, had alleged repeated sexual harassment by college principal, GK Arora.



Prior to her dismissal Bhardwaj had repeatedly filed sexual harassment complaints against the college principal in 2009.

However, the apex committee of the university ruled in favour of Arora.



Her death prompted protests by teachers and students of the college who demanded that the college principal should step down until a probe is on in this case.



The demonstrators also accused Delhi Police of shoddy investigation in the case, claiming that no action has been taken against the principal and another employee of the college whom she had named in her suicide note.



The woman was sacked from the college two years ago. Police had filed a case of suicide in this case. "We are waiting the postmortem report in the case. Meanwhile, we are questioning the principal and other people in the case," said deputy commissioner of police (Central) Alok Kumar.



The relatives of the woman said that Bhardwaj had filed complaints against the college principal first with an anti-sexual harassment committee and then with the apex committee of the university, both of which had given clean chit to Arora. They demanded immediate arrest of the principal.



"Nobody from the government or the education department visited her. The principal is being shielded. He should be arrested and only then a fair inquiry is possible in the case," alleged Bhardwaj's brother Sanjeev.



BJP leader Vijay Jolly and former Delhi Mayor Arti Mehra, who had met the victim on Sunday, had also questioned why the Delhi chief minister and the education minister had not cared to visit the victim.



Meanwhile, Chairperson of National Commission for Woman Mamta Sharma said if sexual harassment is taking place in schools and colleges, then it is very unfortunate.



"The case has not yet been reported to us. I will get it probed once it comes to us," she said.



Thanks To:

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-10-07/delhi/42793380_1_college-principal-sexual-harassment-apex-committee

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Probe into harassment starts after suicide



New Delhi, Oct. 9: Pavitra Bharadwaj’s fight for justice has just begun. After her suicide.



For four years, the 40-year-old lab assistant in a Delhi University college had knocked on every door with her complaint of sexual harassment against her college principal. Last year, she lost her job after two internal complaints committees gave the accused a clean chit.



Last week, she set herself on fire.



Today, the National Commission for Women (NCW), which Bharadwaj had approached four years ago, took the first step towards probing her allegations against G.K. Arora, the principal of BR Ambedkar College, and another employee.



It met Delhi University vice-chancellor Dinesh Singh, Delhi State Commission for Women chairperson Barkha Singh, Delhi police commissioner Bhim Sain Bassi and additional commissioner (North-East) V.V. Chaudhary to investigate the allegations and prepare a report.



In the past four years, Bharadwaj had approached all these officials at some point or the other.



“She had come to us in 2009, but at that point her case was purely service related. We asked her to approach the internal committee of the university to address her grievances,” said NCW member Nirmala Sawant Prabhavalkar, who is part of the committee probing the circumstances that led to the suicide.



“We have found out that she approached the Delhi Commission for Women and Delhi police. Today, we spoke to all those involved and we will submit our report soon. I believe there must have been something going on for her to take such an extreme step.”



Arora, who had earlier denied the allegation, was not available for comment.



The case dates back to 2009 when Bharadwaj, a laboratory assistant in the geography department of BR Ambedkar College, accused Arora and another employee of sexual harassment.



A college complaints committee and a higher panel later exonerated both. In 2012, Arora sacked her.



Aditya N. Mishra, former president of the Delhi University Teacher’s Association, said Bharadwaj, an alumnus of Ambedkar College, joined the institution in 2005.



“Problems started when the principal joined in 2007. She repeatedly complained to the authorities and even approached me to take up the matter. Since 2009, matters became worse and she approached everyone from the NCW, DCW, the chief minister and her last complaint was to the vice-chancellor of Delhi University. In her letter, which she wrote days before she set herself on fire, she has detailed how Arora asked her for sexual favours,” said Mishra, who today recorded his statement with the NCW.



Sources familiar with the case said Bharadwaj had written some 20 letters complaining about the harassment, including one that she addressed to Delhi’s lieutenant-governor.



Last week, she set herself on fire in front of the secretariat. Admitted to hospital with 90 per cent burns, she died on October 6 — months after a law to protect working women came into force.



But by the time Parliament passed the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Bill this April, Bharadwaj had lost her job.



Police sources said they found a note in which Bharadwaj blamed Arora and the other employee for being forced to take the extreme step.



Bharadwaj left behind an eight-year-old son. Her husband is a head constable with Delhi police.



Her death prompted protests by teachers and students who said Arora shouldn’t hold charge as principal till the probe was on. “The situation in Delhi University is like a bomb waiting to explode. Failure to fix responsibility and take urgent systemic corrective measures can lead to an irretrievable breakdown of all that has been good about our university,” said teachers’ union president Nandita Narain.



Sources, however, said that in his statement to the NCW today, vice-chancellor Singh had made it clear that Arora would not be suspended pending the investigation.



Thanks To:

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1131010/jsp/nation/story_17444919.jsp#.UpjZF9JmCVZ

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Former DU lab assistant, who alleged sexual harassment by Ambedkar College principal, succumbs to burn injuries



Pavitra Bhardwaj, a former Ambedkar College lab attendant who tried to immolate herself outside the Delhi CM's Office, has succumbed to her burn injuries on Monday.



She was allegedly being sexually harassed by a college principal.



The woman sustained 95 per cent burn injuries and was battling for life at LNJP Hospital.



"Pavitra Bhardwaj died at the LNJP (Lok Nayak Jaiprakash Narayan) Hospital this (Monday) morning," a police officer said.



She had filed complaints of sexual harassment with the office of the Lieutenant Governor, Chief Minister's Office, Delhi Police and Delhi University. However, no action was taken.



The woman's husband is a head constable in Delhi Police.



In her plea, she said the college principal was sexually harassing her for four years and had even threatened to kill her son.



Police sources say that in her testimony before the sub-divisional magistrate, she alleged that the principal was asking for sexual favours and after she filed a complaint, she was fired for misconduct.



However, Ambedkar College principal in a statement denied the charges and said he was being framed.



Bhardwaj was sacked from the college in 2009, police said.



- with IANS inputs



Thanks To:

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/former-du-lab-assistant-succumbs-to-burn-injuries-ambedkar-college-principal/1/313435.html

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Dual Life, Bitty Mohanti (Episode 243, 244, 245 on 10th, 11th & 12thMay 2013)

http://crimepatroldastak.blogspot.com/2013/05/dual-life-jai-kumar-prasad-milind-regi.html

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Namrata Das's decade long fight for justice against Sexual Harassment at workplace (Episode 237, 238, 239 on 26th, 27th, 28th Apr 2013)

http://crimepatroldastak.blogspot.in/2013/04/namrata-das-decade-long-fight-for-justice.html

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Crime Patrol: Sexual harassment victim comes knocking on Antony's door (Episdoe 117, 118 on 08 Jun 2012)

Principal of an Army Public School, Jaipur, alleged to be perpetrator; Antony to institute probe



Up against a formidable line-up of Army officials who were members of an inquiry panel that ended up taking away her job, a victim of alleged sexual harassment by the principal of an Army Public School in Jaipur came knocking on Defence Minister A.K. Antony's door here on Tuesday seeking justice. She was accompanied by Communist Party of India (Marxist) Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat and Right to Food activist Kavita Srivastava who presented a memorandum to the Minister.



“Mr. Antony took a serious view of the matter. He said he would institute an inquiry into it,” Ms. Karat told The Hindu.



Raising the larger issue of the Army not recognising Vishaka guidelines set by the Supreme Court on sexual harassment at the workplace, Ms. Karat said: “This girl had no place to go for six months. Why are the Army representatives on the management committee shielding this principal?”



OUTRAGE



Mangala Bhatt's eyes brimmed with tears as she recalled the outrage she felt when her tormentor, principal Rajiv Kumar Singh, touched her inappropriately and pushed her in full view of a maid, peon and others. And this was not the only time. This 30-year-old mother of a five-year-old alleged that she had been at the receiving end, over several months, of Dr. Singh's lewd comments and open invitation to meet him outside the school if she wanted to be made permanent in her contractual job.



Ms. Bhatt was accompanied by her husband Pawan, also a school teacher, her brother and Meena Devi, the office help attached to the principal's office, who too lost her job for standing witness against the principal.



“I myself, as also peons and safai karamcharis, saw the manner in which the principal pushed Madam Mangala. In fact, on several occasions he touched my fingers as I handed him a glass of water. The first time I thought it was a mistake. The second time again I thought it was a mistake, but it made me conscious of a pattern. But I could not tell anyone. We are poor people and have four children to bring up and need the job,” Ms. Meena Devi told The Hindu.



EXEMPLARY COURAGE



Yet Ms. Bhatt and Ms. Meena have shown exemplary courage in fighting it out. Both women, in different ways, went through a horrendous time on the inquiry committees that were set up, more to break their spirit, than to provide them any relief. Far from following Vishaka guidelines that call for such a panel to be headed by a woman with majority members as women, these male-dominated committees made it worse for the victims with their lewd manner of cross-examination.



Ms. Bhatt was being consistently “advised” to withdraw her complaint or lose her job, while Ms. Meena Devi was being induced to accept a bribe or turn hostile. “Madam used to come to the tea room and cry and cry at the manner in which she was being questioned. Her eyes used to be swollen and red.”



Both women were made to sign papers. Ms. Meena Devi said she was made to sign on blank papers, while Ms. Bhatt, who was also taunted on the inquiry panels for not being well-versed with English, was made to sign on papers with English text.



Finally, after the case became public, the services of Ms. Bhatt, an arts teacher, who was promoted TGT Arts and Craft before Dr. Singh became principal, were “terminated.” Ms. Meena Devi, who was on contract was made a daily wager and sacked. Some others who spoke up are apprehensive of similar action.



Activist Srivastava said a teacher had deposed before the second inquiry panel that she was present when the incident occurred and yet another spoke up about sexual harassment.



“In these inquiries, Ms. Bhatt was made to sit till late evenings and asked the same questions again and again. Ultimately she left the inquiry and complained to the police on April 5 which lodged an FIR against the principal for sexual harassment. Following this, her services were terminated. She later approached women's groups. The State Women's Commission also held that the Army School was not implementing Supreme Court guidelines relating to Prevention of Sexual Harassment at Workplace.”



CHARGESHEETED



On November 11, 2011, the principal filed a writ petition in the High Court to get the FIR quashed but it was dismissed. Finally, on November 15, 2011, Dr. Singh was chargesheeted.



When contacted by The Hindu, a top management functionary of the school who did not want to be named said: “It was all building up. What happened was that the principal had questioned her on not attending an evening school function, which resulted in both shouting at each another. It is not correct that the principal pushed her... There are some disgruntled elements who have become witnesses. This has been blown out of proportion.”



Asked why no action had been taken against the principal who has been charge-sheeted, he said: “Inquiry panels have found him innocent.''



He claimed Ms. Bhatt had been sacked for “inefficiency and indiscipline.” Asked why she was promoted from an Arts teacher to TGT if she was inefficient, he fumbled: “Sometimes she was efficient, then she was promoted… if she is not efficient, reasons are there…''



JUSTICE FOR ALL



But Ms. Bhatt wants justice also for all teachers, helpers and peons whose services have been terminated. “With such a principal at the helm of affairs what will be the future of children? Other women should come up and speak out. I could, because of the support of my husband.”



Courtesy:

http://www.thehindu.com/

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