A 24-year-old Indian law student in the US has published a crowdsourced list of alleged sexual predators in academia.
The list put together by Raya Sarkar who is studying at the University of California includes over sixty names of university teachers serving at some of the best known educational institutions in India and overseas, including Oxford University and the University of California.
Ms Sarkar’s Facebook profile describes her as “an attorney interested in prisoner’s rights, reproductive rights and anti-caste jurisprudence”.
She says the list is primarily for students to be wary of their professors and it began with posting an invite on her Facebook profile to name those indulging in sexually predatory behaviour in the academia.
“If anyone knows of academics who have sexually harassed/were sexually predatory to them or have seen it first-hand PM me and I'll add them to the list,” she wrote.
Within hours of Ms Sarkar’s post going live, she had as many as 58 names on her list.
She says the #metoo campaign inspired her to create this list using firsthand survivor accounts.
“I feel Harvey Weinstein's case has started many discussions and people are now more open to believing victims instead of ‘liar until proven innocent’”, Ms Sarkar told .
She said the idea behind putting together this “cautionary list” was to make students aware of the professors indulging in predatory behaviour.
Ms Sarkar received hundreds of messages from women accusing the same professors of sexual harassment.
“I am very glad that there are many people in India – men, women, and non-men – who are open to believing victims of sexual harassment, who have risked their career to report to me".
Ms Sarkar was also inspired by C Christine Fair’s article on Huffington Post published on October 19 in which she describes the harassment faced throughout her life beginning with her uncle at an early age, through similar experiences at various academic institutions.
While Ms Sarkar’s initiative has gathered a great momentum with many survivors naming alleged perpetrators, a number of well-known feminists in India have flagged concerns about her actions.
“We are dismayed by the initiative on Facebook, in which men are being listed and named as sexual harassers with no context or explanation,” they said in a joint statement posted online.
“One or two names of men who have been already found guilty of sexual harassment by due process, are placed on par with unsubstantiated accusations. It worries us that anybody can be named anonymously, with lack of answerability. Where there are genuine complaints, there are institutions and procedures, which we should utilize,” the statement read.
Ms Sarkar said the response of the Indian feminists was similar to what American fashion designer and a “self-proclaimed feminist” Donna Karan who “blamed victims for the clothes they wear in order to defend her friend, Harvey Weinstein”.
