Days after girl students of Aligarh Muslim University’s (AMU) Malappuram campus alleged harassment by a male faculty member, they have now expressed concern that an all-male committee has been set up to probe the matter.

The students, who were on a strike for seven days (November 20 to 27), had called off their strike after AMU constituted a two-member committee — comprising two male staff — to probe the matter. They had also written to the AMU V-C, following which, faculty member M H Faridi was removed from the post of proctor.

Over 100 students, including over 50 girls, have alleged that Faridi, despite having no official authority, visits the girls’ hostel often without intimation. He also makes girls sit in his chamber for long hours. Moreover, at odd hours, he calls up girls and asks for information about others. He had even called up the parents of some girls and given them false information about their activities. Already, one girl had left the campus due to his alleged high-handedness.

“There should be at least one woman in the committee. It is better to discuss such things with a woman teacher. It is also prescribed by the Supreme Court. The charges are of a serious nature. The faculty member is still in the campus,” a girl student told The Indian Express.

She added that in main campus, a committee — headed by a woman — is already functional to probe harassment cases related to girls. “University should have taken the matter more seriously,” said another student.

When contacted, AMU’s centres’ coordinator, Pervez Talib, said: “Since harassment of girls was not the main issue, no woman was included in the committee. Their complaint against Faridi has already been resolved… he was removed from the post of proctor… only other issues were left.”

The probe team had returned from Malappuram. “We have not yet received the report yet but the team has returned after conducting its inquiry. It will soon submit a report,” said Talib.

He admitted that recently, in a similar incident reported at AMU’s Kishanganj centre, a woman member was included in the inquiry committee. “It is usually done in such cases… we have zero tolerance policy… but in the Malappuram incident, this was not the main issue,” said Talib, adding that several other issues were given air by “external political elements”.

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