Kalakshetra’s Internal Complaints Committee member resigns

The resignation came a day after an instructor at Kalakshetra Foundation-run dance school was arrested over allegations of sexual harassment

A day after an instructor at Kalakshetra Foundation-run dance school was arrested over allegations of sexual harassment, an external member of its Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) resigned on Tuesday citing “the current happenings” at the institution and the administration’s response to it.

The member said the atmosphere at the institution forced her to quit. (Twitter)

In her letter to Kalakshetra director Revathi Ramachandran, B S Ajeetha, a Madras high court lawyer, said the atmosphere at the institution and the discontentment of the women students and staff forced her to quit. “I have my reservations regarding the responses made by the administration to the present controversy. Hence, I do not want to associate myself anymore with your institution...”

Kalalshetra on Monday formed an independent inquiry committee comprising retired high court judge K Kannan, former Tamil Nadu Police chief Letika Saran and Shoba Varthaman, a doctor, to look into the sexual harassment complaints at the institute.

Hari Padman, the instructor, was arrested on Monday on a complaint from an alumna on Friday that he sexually harassed her when she was a student at the dance school.

Padman was the first to be accused of sexual harassment. But the foundation sought to dismiss the claims of the students of the Rukmini Devi College of Fine Arts. The students began protesting on March 30 demanding that four teachers including Padman be suspended for alleged sexual harassment.

On March 19, Kalakshetra’s administration released a statement saying the ICC found no truth in the allegations.

Ramachandran announced the closure of the institute until April 6 and asked the students to vacate the hostel within two days and postponed the exams amid protests.

On March 25, Ramachandran met Tamil Nadu Police chief Sylendra Babu to share details of the ICC’s report and maintained that the allegations were rumours to spoil Kalakshetra’s image.

The protest was temporarily called off on March 31 following Tamil Nadu State Women Commission head A S Kumari’s intervention. Kumari received around 100 written complaints of sexual and mental harassment when she spent five hours on campus.

The issue was also raised in the Tamil Nadu assembly last week and chief minister M K Stalin promised action if the allegations were found to be true.

The students said on Monday that the foundation agreed to look into their demands, which include acknowledgment of the students union, and measures to address verbal and sexual harassment, sexism, body shaming, and colourism on campus.

Students and alumni said they have complained of harassment since 2008 but that the school’s management did not take them seriously. In anonymous online posts, several students and alumni have shared experiences of being sexually harassed.

Dancer Rukmini Devi Arundale founded Kalakshetra, which functions autonomously under the Union culture ministry, in 1936. Spread across 100 acres in Chennai, it serves as a learning and performance space for fine arts among which Bharathnatiyam is its most revered and popular form.