The NIT Trichy Sexual Harassment Case

An incident that has occurred in the National Institute of Technology, a reputed engineering college in Trichy, Tamil Nadu, India, has blown up on social media as people are hearing of how a young student was treated as she filed a report at the college regarding her own sexual harassment. 

The accused, a 38 year old contractual worker named G. Karthiresan, was called in to fix issues regarding Wi-fi in the victim's room. He exposed himself indecently and began masturbating in front of the victim while she was alone with the accused. The young woman ran at the sight of the indecent exposure, and when she returned, the perpetrator was nowhere to be seen.

When the victim sought help from the hostel authorities to report the situation at hand, the hostel staff treated the issue with what can be regarded as extreme unprofessionalism as they alleged that they were bothered by the fact that she sought their help. They went so far as to tell the victim that what had occurred was  her fault  because she was wearing a skirt, saying that the Wi-fi was not fixed because of her. The warden of the hostel supposedly told the victim and her friends that they should learn martial arts instead of music and dance to ward off potential sexual predators. 

Once this incident went public, the series of comments made online which shamed the victim instead of aiding her during a traumatic stage angered many. This dissatisfaction with the hostel authorities led to a sit-in protest on the 29th of August against how this situation was handled. Approximately five hundred students came together, demanding accountability. The protests continued as students refused to disperse until concrete action was taken, and the situation escalated when the warden threatened to impose stricter curfews. Things started to de-escalate  as Superintendent Varun Kumar handled the situation by communicating with the hostel authorities, taking measures to ensure that a member of staff  was present when renovations or repair work was ongoing and apprehending the accused. 

The accused, G Kathiresan, has been booked under sections 75(1) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which states “  A man committing any of the following acts :- physical contact and advances and explicit sexual overtures shall be guilty of the offense of sexual harassment” and 332(3) which states “ whoever commits house- trespass in order to the committing of any offence - punishable with imprisonment of either description for a term Noguchi may extend to two years and shall also be liable to a fine” in conjunction with section four of the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of  Women harassment act which states “ Penalty for harassment of woman.-Whoever commits or participates in or abets harassment of woman in or within the precincts of any educational institution, temple or other place of worship, bus stop, road, railway station, cinema theater, park, beach, place of festival, public service vehicle or vessel or any other place shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years and with fine which shall not be less than ten thousand rupees."  G Karthiresan has been put under  judicial remand until his court date.

Reflecting on the situation,  it is important to note that the inconsideration for the students’ wellbeing  will never be forgotten by the girls at NIT Trichy. It will always be a reminder that the world can be both unfair and unsafe. Society as a whole should strive to make the world a safer place for all its inhabitants and work towards the creation of a society in which no one has to be scared that they may be sexually assaulted in their daily lives.