A protest raised by a group of students with the hashtags- raise your voice, Halla bola- from the School of Drama and Fine Arts points to a very serious issue of the institution. A first year graduate of the institution has accused that the Vice chancellor of Calicut University who is also the Dean of the department, Dr S Sunil Kumar has misbehaved and raped her at his residence on 21st January 2022. The student was threatened by him to keep this away from the public. She was in a very stressful situation where the public would manipulate the issue where she would be blamed and marked as a whore or slut. Out of severe panic attacks and depression she committed suicide on 13 February 2022 and was admitted in a severe condition at the hospital. At this point of time she tried to talk about the dreadful incident to her peers but in vain. The survivor spoke to The NEWS Minute where she expresses her extreme grief, inertia and helplessness. She had gone through the most difficult times where she had to surrender herself to the cruel misbehavior and threat of the power holding academic structures.
The campus has been witnessing a protest comprising of at least 55 students, where a sexual allegation is also raised against another guest lecturer who was from the Calicut University. The lecturer had raised physical and verbal abuses against the students but tried to convince those as a part of teaching. At what cost can a teacher touch a student’s body without her/his/their permission? The huge power differential between the accused and the survivor needs to be seriously taken into consideration. In the light of above mentioned incidents, complaint has been registered under IPC section 354 and 354A.
A student among the protesters shares her opinions and awfulness through social media. In a way they are eagerly waiting for a positive judgment from the authorities. She says that this is not the problem of only one girl student or the students of campus, but of all students irrespective of gender over the world. She also shares her experience at Ayyanthol police station where the officer, SI Biju tried to mentally attack the survivor several times on different grounds. The complainant was also harassed by the doctors at the time of physical check-up where they used the weapons of morality to attack her. The latest information received says that on 28 February 2022, DR S Sunil Kumar has been suspended from the campus and is restricted from entering the campus. Apart from all the distressing news this brings a ray of hope to the protesters. They are constantly raising voices to all the authorities to get legal help and also to arrest the so-called teachers.
The mainstream media and concerned authorities are convincing conveniently which evidently shows their disinterest towards this incident. There are a lot of students who continuously face such harassment but are unable to open up or share their abuses.
Let justice prevail and peace return.
