Saturday 16 January 2016

COLLECTIVE STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT COMPLAINANTS

Thanks to all the women who networked beautifully when the complainants including me were put under huge pressure. Please feel free to leave your names under comments if you want to endorse it. 

5th January 2016

Hello public

There has been growing number of reported complaints of women students being sexually harassed at educational institutions. And shockingly there has been a trend of social media slandering or community shaming of those who have complained. They have been targeted, called names and accused of spoiling the ‘image’ of the educational institution. We find this attitude utterly disturbing and deplorable.

We - artists, filmmakers and human right activists and concerned citizens, condemn any pressure on students who have complained against any harassment on campus. The student complainants should not fear or face any discrimination for speaking up against any kind of abuse.

We look forward to the enquiry committee that has been set up at SRFTI [Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute], Kolkata, according to the laws of the land to investigate the matter to understand the seriousness of the nature of complaints and arrive at due actions. We stand in solidarity with other women students from FTII[Film and Television Institute of India],Pune who came out and complained against sexual harassment on campus.

We also hope that the student community will be extremely sensitive in the use of language while talking about this issue and would not put any pressure overt or covert on student complainants.

Yes, it is a moment when we need to take a stand and introspect – both men and women – on why we are unwilling to engage with the complexity of established gendered power equations and structures in our everyday contexts, even so-called “liberal” ones and why we hesitate to hold accountable those who violate the idea of positive consent between adults. As people working in the world of arts and ideas it’s doubly important that we respond with sensitivity and nuance, rather than easy categorisations, to the overt and unspoken ways in which sexual politics operates in our environment.

In complete solidarity with the women students who have complained,  


  1. Gargi Sen
  2. Deepa Dhanraj, Filmmaker
  3. Kavita Joshi
  4. Leena Manimekalai, Filmmaker
  5. Miriam Chandy Meenacherry
  6. Nishtha Jain, Filmmaker FTII
  7. Paromita Vohra ,Writer,Filmmaker
  8. Saba Dewan
  9. Shazia Khan
  10. Surabhi Sharma ,Filmmaker FTII
  11. Tangella Madhavi, Filmmaker  
  12. Amal Neerad, Filmmaker
  13. Rukmini Sen, Writer, Producer
  14. Kani Kusruthi, Actor
  15. Zeba Imam, Academician
  16. Adwaita Das, Filmmaker, FTII
  17. Mainak Guha, SRFTI
  18. Sreecheta Das, SRFTI
  19. Ishan Sil, SRFTI
  20. Kunjila, SRFTI
  21. Debja Ni, SRFTI
  22. Subal K R, SRFTI
  23. Vaibhav Hiwase, SRFTI
  24. Kalhan Raina, SRFTI
  25. Chetna Kaul, Director, FTII
  26. Nilanjan Banerjee, Director, SRFTI
  27. Kalyani Menon Sen, Feminist Learning Partnerships
  28. Meena Seshu, Sangram
  29. Amrita Shodhan, SOAS, University of London
  30. Neha Gupta, Correspondent, Japan Broadcasting Corporation
  31. Anita Ghai, Ambedkar University
  32. Abha Bhaiyya, Women Rights Activist
  33. Geeta Seshu, Senior Journalist
  34. Urvashi Butalia
  35. Shahida Murtaza
  36. Marantha GT Wahlang, PhD student
  37. Virginia Saldanha
  38. Uma V Chandru, Researcher, Bangalore
  39. Govind Kelkar
  40. Juhi Jain, Feminist Activist
  41. Khushboo Agarwal Editor, FTII
  42. Amit Raj Director,FTII
  43. Irene Dhar Malik, Film Editor FTII
  44. Kavita Pai, Filmmaker,FTII
  45. Batul Mukhtiar Filmmaker,FTII
  46. Jabeen Merchant,Editor,FTII
  47. Reema Borah, Director,FTII
  48. Jyoti Kapoor, Writer, FTII
  49. Pinky Bramha Choudhary, Filmmaker
  50. Shobit Jain, Filmmaker ,FTII
  51. Arjuna Raja
  52. Onirban ,Director,Producer
  53. Myna Mukherjee, Cultural Curater & Producer
  54. Simon Frenay, Actor
  55. Ashish Bhisht, Actor
  56. Shanthi Mohan,Cinematographer
  57. Aswathy Raveendran, Researcher,PhD
  58. Arshia Malik, Writer,Academician.
  59. Aarti Tikoo Singh, Sr.Journalist TOI
  60. Aswini Malik, Writer,Director,Academician.,FTII
  61. Himanshu Srivastava, Researcher Science Education
  62. Vasudha Mohanka, Doctoral Scholar
  63. Ayesha Kidwai
  64. Sumi Krishna
  65. Teena Gill
  66. Ritambhara Mehta
  67. Anshu Jain
  68. Rituparna Borah
  69. Nazariya, A Queer Feminist Resource Group
  70. K.C. Bindu, Assistant Professor, Gender Studies, Ambedkar University, Delhi
  71. Rajashri Dasgupta
  72. Pujita Guha
  73. Zalina Gamat Director,FTII
  74. Fatema Kagalwala, Editor, FTII
  75. Vatsala
  76. Inji Pennu, Journalist, Global Voices
  77. Promona Sengupta
  78. Bedatri Dutta Choudhury
  79. Smriti Nevatia Filmmaker
  80. Dr. Manasi Palshikar, Writer, FTII
  81. Manish J. Tipu, Music Composer,Singer
  82. Gouri Patwardhan Editor, Director FTII
  83. Bela Negi, Director FTII
  84. Geetika Tyagi Actor.
  85. Pooja Sharma Cinematographer FTII
  86. Manjushree Abhinav Filmmaker FTII
  87. Shobha SV,Media Professional
  88. Ajita Nair ,Filmmaker
  89. Gagan Judge ,Filmmaker
  90. Manjushree Abhinav, Director FTII
  91. Arun Kumar ,Social Development Professional Mumbai
  92. Arundhati Hazarika,Social Developement Professional London
  93. Deepshikha Nainani, Media Professional
  94. Samrat Mukherjee ,Journalist
  95. Sandali Thakur, Academician
  96. Satyen K Bordoloi Writer
  97. Ruchika Oberoi ,Writer,Director FTII
  98. Bindhulakshmi P, TISS
  99. Asha Achutan, TISS
  100. Smita Dutta
  101. Sreyoshi Sen
  102. Shruti Anindita Verma, Filmmaker
  103. Saswati Ghosh, Academic and activist, Kolkata
  104. Preethi Krishnan
  105. Neeraj Malik
  106. Nisha Susan, Writer
  107. Srijani Dey, SRFTI
  108. Sudipto Basu
  109. Darshana Mini, PhD Student, University of Southern California
  110. Sridala Swami, Writer, FTII 
  111. Suhel Banerjee
  112. Rehna Khalid 
  113. Jina Dcruz 
  114. Dhrupadi Ghosh, Researcher, Jamia Millia Islamia
  115. Subrata Sinha 
  116. Tania Mukhopadhyay, Cinematographer, SRFTI 
  117. Deborah Dutta, Researcher, Science Education
  118. Gurinder Singh, PhD Student, Mumbai
  119.  Aisha Kawalkar, Researcher, Science Education
  120. Subeesh M P, Senior Research Fellow, National Institute of Oceanography
  121. Dr. Rohan Deb Roy, Lecturer, University of Reading, UK
  122. Dr. Shinjini Das, Research Fellow, University of Cambridge
  123. Dipanjan Sinha, Journalist, Midday
  124. Shriya Bandopadhyay, PhD student, JNU

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