The atmosphere at the University of Hyderabad (UoH) remained tense a day after protests erupted over an alleged rape attempt by a professor. The professor's and students' classes in the Hindi department have been cancelled for today, Monday, December 5. Furthermore, the third-semester exams have been cancelled. It should be noted that the accused was also remanded to judicial custody for 14 days.
"We have called for a meeting by 12 pm on Monday," a first-year postgraduate (PG) student and a classmate of the Thailand student told The New Indian Express. “We had our first class with the professor on Monday. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary that day. He asked each one of us to introduce ourselves," she added.
The professor conducted an extra class on Friday between 2 pm and 4 pm, which she said was also normal. "We don't know what happened between them after the class," she added, as reported by The New Indian Express.
Several first and second-year PG students in the department are unaware of the accused because he took a year off from teaching in 2020 and returned only this year. However, a few alumni stated that nothing notable happened while they were students. However, there is a difference between how he behaves with men and women, they added. “His behaviour with female students used to be sweet. He used to call one of our classmates late at night. One day when her number was not available, he called her roommate to check on that girl," said a former student, who completed MPhil in 2018-19 from the Hindi department stated The New Indian Express report.
The alumni speak
Unlike at other universities, the Hindi department at UoH was full of students from both the northern and southern states. Students claimed that the accused was never the one to brag about the department's diversity. They also stated that, despite the fact that the accused was a Hindi lecturer, he would judge students based on their ability to speak English, clothing, and background. “He insulted many students in the class for asking a question. He made one of our batchmates repeat the semester for criticising the professor," a student from the 2017-18 batch, who now lives in New Delhi, said to The New Indian Express.
Committee and elections
The university has established an Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) called the Gender Sensitisation Committee Against Sexual Harassment (GSCASH) in accordance with the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition, and Redressal) Act. It has 12 members, including two representatives from third parties. The president of the University of Hyderabad Students Union (UHSU) and three other student members are also on the committee (one each from PhD, postgraduate and undergraduate level). Due to the pandemic and the delay in CUET results, MA students, who were supposed to join in July, started their academic year in December. "As various student elections have not been conducted yet, the elections for the GSCASH are pending," an ex-member of the GSCASH committee of UoH said. The member added that no student representative is available on the PG and UG levels, as reported by The New Indian Express.
