WASH: HOW WE WORK

Hello from WASH,

We are Women Against Sexual Harassment. WASH was founded by two survivors from two educational institutes in Kolkata, India. We intend to be a support system in ways we can to sexual harassment victims from places of learning and workplaces. In this post we are stating how we operate:

If you are a supporter

We are trying to be of whatever little help we can, to sexual harassment complainants across the country’s educational institutes. If you think you can be a supporter of this cause, you can join us as a supporter. We have nobody funding us so there is no payment involved. We are a small group of working women and students. So support is just being there. A lot of our work is done on social media. We also sometimes have protests in different cities where we turn up to make a statement or for a show of strength etc. You can help us in these. There is a lot of writing and getting in touch with people for support that we do. All these are divided among supporters. Eg: The picture you see above was made by one of us. It takes time. Such work is divided among the members.

You can support us as a complainant, victim, survivor etc and you shall be defined by the identity you choose.

If you are a complainant

If you are a complainant who needs help in any form you can contact us. To protect the identities if the complainants so decide, currently the system is to drop in a mail at kunjilamascillamani@gmail.com Once we receive a mail we will get back to you to tell you in what way we can help you and to what extent.

Can Complainants be Supporters?

Yes.

Can Sexual Harassment/ Rape Victims be Supporters?

Yes.

Can Men be Supporters?

Yes. (Rolls eyes)

Is there anybody who cannot be a supporter?

No.
However, if the members are involved in sexist or misogynistic practices we shall discuss it, take a decision about the situation and shall make a statement about it. We do not entertain irresponsible talk and especially not around sexual harassment and women.

We are all strangers to each other and are people who got together for a cause. So it is possible that we don’t know of what a person’s political history has been. I didn’t know that Irrfan Khan was embroiled in a sexual harassment case until recently. If similar things about gender issues are brought to our notice we shall look into it and shall state publicly what decision we take regarding it.

Suppose Irrfan Khan Seeks Help?

We will offer help in ways we can. The only problem here is that we are currently working with harassment to women alone. What we mean to say with the Irrfan Khan analogy is that, even if you are somebody who has taken problematic stance towards women in the past. Eg: if you have slut shamed women complainants in the past and today you face harassment and come to us, we will help you. No questions asked. Harassment is harassment. We don’t tolerate it.

However, if there are members who have been victims of your harassment in the past, there is an obvious conflict of interest. We will again have to discuss what is to be done and whatever it is, it shall be transparent. We will let the world know of our decision and the reasons behind it.

What happens next?

We are waiting to see what happens in the sexual harassment cases at Jadavpur University and Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute. We are trying to reach out to women at various places where complaints of sexual harassment have already been made. We need to expand this network and the aim is to be the biggest support group and the strongest of its kind in the country.

We are WASH: Women Against Sexual Harassment. Join Us Now

At a great phase of life. A steady source of income. Closer to cinema than ever. In a strange land where I know no one and no one knows me. Very little Malayalam to be heard on streets. An anonymous life to everyone around me. This is when a few of us decided that it was time for something very new and important. We formed an alliance. 

WASH: Women Against Sexual Harassment

Who we are

We are a group of women. Our professions and lives are different. We are united by one cause. A long drawn battle against sexual harassment. We were fed up and in the midst of a tiring twist of developments in our respective places of education/work when we united. And we are:

Ekabali Ghosh: Writer, Content Manager @ WASH

Student, Jadavpur University [JU], Kolkata

Made complaint of sexual harassment against a fellow student in the University. Molested by a professor’s son. This factor later turned out to be a source of power for the accused. ‘The accused has been asked not to come to classes. But that’s all that has been done. The University authorities have always wanted the case to go to cyber crimes, JU has a notorious record for not punishing sex offenders. We feel that they are delaying the case so that the third year of the UG course ends and he can safely pass out’, in her words.

Fighting for justice since September 2016

Sreecheta Das: Writer, Filmmaker

Complained against two professors of Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute [SRFTI] on charges of sexual harassment. Victimised, ostracized and threatened with rape ever since. She believes in fighting matters legally as well as through her work.

Fighting for justice since December 2015

Layashree Joshi: Cinematographer, Filmmaker @ WASH

Complained against one professor and two senior students against sexual harassment in SRFTI. For Layashree WASH means ‘means to fight for that little respect that rightfully belongs to you’.

Fighting for justice since October 2015

kunjila mascillamani: Writer, Filmmaker @ WASH

Complained against two professors on charges of sexual harassment and rape. Also against two students. Witch hunting, slut shaming, mental health shaming followed. Believes that only women can heal sexual harassment and that this is a step towards it. Even when we have a long way to go, so glad that for the first time in the country, women complainants of different educational institutes are joining hands. Hope to grow into the largest network of this nature in the country and formulation of sexual harassment policies specific to such places of learning and of work.

Fighting for justice since: December 2015

What we (will) do

Create noise. Sounds simple, but isn’t.

Speaking about sexual harassment is a taboo and this fact becomes even more evident if you take a look at the time of abuse and the time taken to make a complaint by most women. In fact, for the same reason, many of us have been called liars. Been accused of having 'enjoyed' the ‘companionship' (read sex) earlier and later ‘crying rape’ or sex abuse later.

WASH wants to crack this wall. So we have decided to create a lot of noise around sexual harassment in campuses so that people get annoyed. It is always a good sign when that happens. Any kind of resistance has, going by history, only met with annoyance at first. People are always just too cozy in their comfort zones where women are nice as long as they speak for patriarchy or well, does not speak at all. We are, in other words, women who speak. 

The other aims include the following:

Create a large network of women and supporters from across the country. This will help us strategise better and move forward together in this battle. Women from across the country who have faced sexual harassment while in an educational institute or at workplace can join us. By join us, we mean being part of this noise creating, ideating, fighting group. Identities shall be protected. Do you remember the documentary called ‘The Hunting Ground’? When two women with the same problems got together, in the beginning there was noise, and then there was revolution. If everything goes well (it won’t, never does in the case of sexual harassment but we will stay alive and fight) we will be able to achieve the following:

·        Institution-workplace specific sexual harassment policies,

·        Immense content on sexual harassment in these spaces.

Justice for the complainants of SRFTI and JU (and others who will join later). 

The final one is a very difficult task and all of us are, like we said in the introduction, people who have been fighting for it for a long time. The intention is to begin the fight in places where it has not begun and extend support in ways possible to us to all others who are currently fighting. 

What YOU need to do:

If you are somebody who believes in this cause, write to us. We have a Facebook page. If you are a person who has been sexually harassed and who wants to talk about it or fight it, drop in a mail at kunjilamascillamaniATgmailDOTcom or leave a comment in my blog. I shall not publish it if you so ask. 

So people, WASH is here. We are starting to wash out sexual harassment from campuses and workplaces. Come join us.

Call for an Alliance

27th March

Ekabali Ghosh, student, Jadavpur University wrote to me about the sexual harassment case she was fighting at her university. An idea popped up and i invited women.Put up a Facebook status saying this:

Friends I have an idea. We need an alliance. Jadavpur University, I remember reading about the sexual harassment incidents there. I had even spoken at a seminar. Talked long about the need for a proper ICC-SH and how that is the first step towards justice. Don't know how many of you remember me. Anyway, let us form this alliance. Our cause is the same. Sexual harassment. Our enemy is the same. Powerful administration, sexist environment, hostile students. JU people in my list, tag people who can be part of this group. I shall do so with SRFTI. Now be prepared to receive personal messages advising you about my character, how most sexual harassment cases are untrue and all that. Also I am not in Kolkata and am operating from Bombay while working here. So like being a student and fighting like most of you, I have time issues. But I thought for long and I have come to the conclusion that this is the best way. I'll introduce myself in first comment. Love.

Kamal Swaroop in Jadavpur University

4.2.2014

Kamal Swaroop in Jadavpur University
Photo: Arundhati Ghosh

Kamal Swaroop's documentary-fiction Rangbhoomi was screened followed by an interaction with him in Jadavpur University today. The film is about Dadasaheb Phalke and is his latest project. I had watched Om-Dar-Ba-Dar, the movie which made him famous only a day ago and was eager to meet the director. It is considered a cult movie in indian scenario and i agree that the country has seen no such. I have some ideological queries about it though.

Rangbhoomi was done with the help of students from Srishti School of Art Design and Technology, Bangalore. I liked the movie also for this. It is democratic in that way. The director is not all powerful and the narrative moves forward also through the help of these young people. They were asked to do some research on the time Phalke spent in Benares after he decided to resign from movies. There he had written a semi-autobiographical play called Rangbhoomi, a seven hour long one. The movie uses the text of this play and films the students and Swaroop himself doing research work in Benares. It moves forward with the people they meet in this process and the information they gather. Shot in digital, i also liked it that the possibilities of the medium are greatly explored. Visual effects are used copiously. Some of them blow your mind. Swaroop said that for him the research that went behind the making of the movie [he had done it for as long as twenty years] was more important that the movie itself. He also said that it was not his movie and was that of the cinematograper and the editor. He was able to enjoy the film because of this, he added. In the movie we see himself going around Benares asking people if they knew of Phalke's time spent there etc. He said that we ourselves could see that he wasn't directing anybody. It was the original play that was directing all of them, he clarified. There were, however some deliberate elements. He, for example, was sure that he didn't want his images to resemble the many photos of Benares that we are familiar with. Therefore a stone miniature of Benares created by an art director from FTII was used. He was filmed against a blue screen and later pasted on this, in some places. 

As a part of the reasearch they developed a website called PhalkeFactory. It is quite interesting. Anybody with an account can make changes and add data in it. 

There is a lovely scene in the movie when Phalke's movies are shown to the localites. The movie had got funds from Films Division because it had that year [2013] got a new chief and the country was also celebrating 100 years of cinema. Swaroop said he thought it was an interesting idea to show people of Raja Harishchandra Ghat 'Raja Harishchandra' as a means of commemorating the hundred years. 'Just fooling around', he said, laughing.

He said that he usually shied away from watching his work and that it was like a pilgrimage or exorcism for him. 'It's good your name is in the film [and] you haven't made [it]'. He concluded, laughing.