All India Progressive Women’s Association to meet West Bengal women’s commission on the SRFTI issue

Kolkata: The ongoing crisis at the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute has prompted a lot of action on social media. One such step is the creation of a page called “Justice for SRFTI victims” this week.
The online community has been created to “support the students of SRFTI” who are fighting against the “rape culture” and “patriarchal power play” on their campus.The description about the page states: “From December, 2015 one rape case and several sexual harassment cases has been filed by some women students of SRFTI to the internal complaints committee (ICC). The complain of rape was referred to the police and one person was arrested in connection to it. The complaints are receiving repeated victim blaming, misogynist comments and death threat from their fellow students. From this page we want to appeal to every democratic people, women’s rights activist, students community and even film makers to stand beside the students fighting against sexual harassment.”
Apart from media reports on the ongoing crisis, this page also has some video clips. Said Chandrasmita Chaudhury, one of the administrators of the page, “I am a member of the All India Progressive Women’s Association. Mitali Biswas, who is my colleague, met the SRFTI victims. We want to reach out to the civil society. Dissemination of news was easier by using this page. We want gender justice there.” On Tuesday, Chaudhury and other members of her organisation will approach the State Women’s Commission. “We will discuss the issues and demand that victim blaming be stopped on campus.”