To, 

Mr. Prahlad Singh Patel
Minister of Culture 

Mr Jagdeep Dhankar
The Governor of West Bengal, 
Chairman of Board of Trustees, 
Indian Museum

Mr Raghavendra Singh
Secretary - Ministry of Culture
 

Mr Arijit Dutta Chowdhury, Director
Indian Museum

Smt Gouri Basu 
IC chairperson
Director, Anthropological Survey of India & EZCC

In Feb 2020, collective pressure from Jhatkaa.org members like you led the Indian Museum, Kolkata to start the Internal Committee (IC) proceedings for the sexual harassment survivor. The Ministry of Culture also intervened and made the long-due IC proceedings happen, which the complainant had been asking for. It was a hard-won victory. 

However, after just one proceeding with the complainant, the IC has abruptly stopped the process. We need to ask Indian Museum director Arijit Dutta Chowdhury why the IC proceedings were stopped midway.  On July 2, 2019, owing to some work, the survivor, a conservancy employee of the Indian Museum, had come to the Museum after she filed a case against sexual harassment by the then director of Indian Museum. 

The survivor was allegedly physically assaulted by Smt. Nita Sen Gupta (Deputy Keeper, Arts section) and Smt. Sangita Jha (MTS). We cannot let this case pass by. It is the responsibility of any institute to ensure that the IC proceedings are finished within 90 days and its directives are implemented in the given time. 

Indian Museum is one of the most prestigious institutes in the country and it needs to set an example of how cases of sexual harassment should be handled. Your signatures will help us push the campaign and put pressure on the authorities to take this case seriously. Sign the petition now!