Sexual harassment happens in Auroville too

Like the rest of the world, Auroville has had to confront the challenge of sexual harassment and the devastating impact it can have on those who experience it. Despite Auroville’s efforts to reduce sexual harassment through education, responsive security and internal justice systems, 

incidents of harassment still occur, and more can be done to ensure a safe environment for all. This collection of articles aims to shed light on what the problem looks like today in Auroville, and what the individuals and groups concerned are doing about this issue. Three victims of sexual harassment and domestic abuse share their stories to illustrate the diversity of experiences and the personal impact that harassment can have. 

We hope an open discussion of sexual harassment in Auroville will increase awareness of the issue, in order to bring support to those who have suffered from it and to those who seek to change the negative patterns that remain.

Across the globe today, workplace sexual harassment is increasingly understood as a violation of women’s rights and a form of violence against women. Indeed, the social construct of male privileges in society continues to be used to justify violence against women in the private and public sphere. 

‘In essence, sexual harassment is a mirror reflecting male power over women that sustains patriarchal relations’, explains a handbook provided by the Ministry of Women and Child Development of India on the matter.

Auroville being part of India, and at the same time ‘home’ for a wide variety of people and cultures, we find a complex scenario when facing the realities of violence and harassment. So how is the community working towards its aspiration of transforming consciousness when it comes to addressing these kind of situations?    

The following three stories are examples of different kinds of harassment experienced in Auroville. They describe some of the individual and collective efforts to solve them. 

Premshakti has been harassed two times by different elders in Auroville in the past years. One time she was unexpectedly kissed on the lips during a dance class, and the second time she received an inappropriate comment and unwanted touch while grocery shopping. 

When the first episode happened, she wasn’t Aurovilian yet, which made her feel more vulnerable about speaking out. “When you are a Newcomer you are in a very sensitive position. If you suddenly bring things out of the closet that are uncomfortable for society, you are challenging the authority and the status quo. I felt like my entire Newcomer process was at stake and that I may actually not be allowed to join the community just because I wanted to stand for the truth,” she narrates. 

She gained support from people when she shared her dance class harassment experience on the online community forum of Auronet, and discovered that many women had endured similar situations with the same man. A complaint to the ICC was made, but restraining measures were taken against the harasser only after an aggrieved visitor – who was also harassed by the same perpetrator – filed a FIR (First Information Report) at the local police station. 

Premshakti also attended a restorative circle that she describes as powerful. “I feel grateful that some actions were taken, but I still felt very alone in the whole process. I know women that have been not only harassed but abused, and they are sitting with that trauma. As women our boundaries have been crossed so many times that we actually normalise it, but the truth is if we don’t address these issues in the community, we won’t heal and progress as we should, and the wounds will remain open”, she states.

While the second episode is still under investigation by the Auroville ICC, Premshakti stresses the need to provide more resources to deal with situations of sexual harassment: “I see a lot of confusion in Auroville about what law we apply for these cases. For example, it’s not clear if we can go to the police or not and how to proceed if you are victimised. We don’t really have rules that are advanced enough inside the community to protect the women in an effective way. So while we don’t want to apply the outside laws, at the same time we haven’t created anything substantial yet to replace that world.”

In contrast to Premshakti’s experience of harassment, Aurore, a long-term volunteer, experienced a very different episode on a forest road but with a faster resolution. Auroville Security was instrumental in her assistance. While she was driving back home on her moped after watching a movie at Cinema Paradiso, she was chased by a young man on a motorbike from a nearby village (a situation that is not uncommon for women). The man grabbed her breast, which caused her to fall down.  Fortunately, she managed to get up and escape from the man before he could reach her on the ground. She was escorted by two friends to the Solar Kitchen roundabout, where they gave notice to a guard from Auroville Security.  One hour later she received a call from them informing that they had caught the harasser, who had attacked another girl the same night. Auroville Security went with her the next morning to Villupuram Police Station to file the complaint and to identify the harasser who was there. Shockingly, the police woman who was attending her case beat the harasser with a baton while Aurore was in the room filing the FIR. “For me it was surreal to see that; it was almost as painful as the aggression I suffered the previous night. In any case, giving notice to the police helped me to move from a victim mindset to recovering the feeling of inner power again,” she explains. 

Samantha is a Newcomer who suffered a violent episode at the hands of her former partner and work colleague. This article does not state her real name or describe the details of the episode. In tandem with her efforts to heal after the trauma, Samantha has had to deal with the stress of daily exposure to her ex-partner at their work place over the last months. She has also faced different levels of secondary victimisation: she has been discredited, rejected and blamed by others after narrating the episode.

Some of the reasons why this case hasn’t been solved is because of its many complexities: she approached her work place administration with the issue after experiencing three months of continuous bullying at work by him, but as she and her assaulter were a romantic couple when he attacked her, their workplace considered it to be a private matter. On the other hand, both of her mentors told her that they didn’t want to get involved. One couldn’t handle the anxiety over the magnitude of the problem, and the other doubted that a Newcomer could do much to solve this kind of situation. The perpetrator himself, in an attempted act to invert the victim-aggressor roles, went to Koodam (Auroville’s conflict resolution platform) to make a complaint of harassment against her. Koodam, following his request, asked her not to approach him or mention him in any conversation, which confused her more in her efforts to reach out for the help she needed. Koodam also referred her to a psychologist. After attending one session, the psychologist diagnosed her as ‘not traumatised’, so it was up to her if she wished to follow with further treatments.  

Unsure of how to proceed, she was advised to talk with the Residents for Residents group, who offered to guide and ‘represent’ her in front of the community. The Entry Board was also contacted, and advised her to go to the ICC, but ICC didn’t take up her case because the episode wasn’t considered to be sexual harassment, but rather domestic violence, which ideally is supposed to be mediated by Koodam. The other option that she had was reporting him to the police, but she didn’t feel confident to involve external law enforcement.

Residents for Residents suggested the coordination of a meeting between the accused and his mentors, to clarify what had happened and to find a solution together, but his mentors refused to attend. Today, the man who attacked her hasn’t admitted his violence, and he has recently been confirmed as Aurovilian.

Samantha says that the entire process has exhausted her and she is frustrated to hear how her assaulter is trying to discredit her by telling all sort of lies and making himself look like the victim: “Some of my colleagues even asked me ‘Why am I trying to ruin this man’s life?’. The only thing I wish is that he takes responsibility for his behavior, to promise that it won’t happen again to me or to any other woman, and that ideally he receives treatment in order to face his problems”.

This case is a good example of how difficult it can get for victims when violent situations are not addressed adequately from the beginning, and how burdened women can become by the bureaucracy and the community when they come forward with a complaint. On the other hand, leaving the assaulter free without facing consequences for his actions exposes not only the already affected person to more trauma, but also the community by allowing the possibility of the same man repeating the harmful behaviour towards more people.

Samantha’s case is also an example of how certain cases of harassment fall into a gap of ‘non-applicability’ under the ICC’s guidelines, as the violence and harassment she experienced were not sexual in nature. In that sense, it may also suggest the need for Auroville to develop resources and mechanisms to detect and deal with situations like this. 

“Somebody close to me said that he (the perpetrator) ‘must be here for a reason’. That may be the truth at some level, but what if the reason he is here is actually for Auroville to learn and put more effective limits and boundaries in place, for people who are not acting in accordance with Auroville’s spirit?” she reflects.