#MeToo: Former TISS student accuses graduate adviser of sexual harassment
What's the story
On Saturday, a former student of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) accused her graduate adviser of sexually harassing her while she was pursuing her M.A. in Personnel Management and Industrial Relations (now called M.A. in Human Resource Management and Labour Relations) from 2004-2006.
Reacting to the allegations, TISS has assured that it will take necessary action.
Here are the details.
Details
Empowered by the #MeToo movement, the ex-student shared her ordeal
Saying that she drew her strength from the strengthening #MeToo movement, the former student took to Facebook to share her ordeal at the hands of the accused, Prof. P Vijayakumar.
She said that she had not been in a position to say "no" to Vijayakumar's advances, owing to the power disparity between them.
The ex-student added that she was willing to take formal action.
Facebook Post
READ: The Facebook post by the former student
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TISS assures that necessary action will be taken
When contacted by Indian Express, the former student said that TISS had reached out to her after her post.
TISS Director Prof. Shalini Bharat confirmed the same, and iterated that TISS has a "zero tolerance policy when it comes to sexual harassment" and that "necessary action will be taken" once investigations against Prof. Vijayakumar has been completed.
Vijayakumar, however, was unavailable for comments.