Adyar's Kalakshetra college to remain closed till April 6 amid protest

CHENNAI: Kalakshetra college in Adyar, Chennai, also known as Rukmini Devi College of Fine Arts (RDCFA) has been ordered to remain closed till April 6 amid students' protest on the campus on Thursday for hours demanding a safe space to speak about sexual harassment and action on the sexual harassment allegations at the institute, according to a Daily Thanthi report.

All students in the college hostel are requested to vacate within 2 days with immediate effect, according to the report.

Today morning, the students walked out of morning prayer and demanded action against an assistant professor and three other dance teachers of Kalakshetra, against whom sexual harassment allegations surfaced recently.

On March 26, representatives from Kalakshetra foundation submitted a clarification and a report of their internal investigations into the sexual harassment complaint against one of their instructors to the Chennai City Police Commissioner, Shankar Jiwal. After media reports about sexual harassment by one of the instructors in the central government-funded institute, National Commission for Women (NCW) wrote to the Tamil Nadu DGP to look into the allegations.

The protest was held on the campus after Chairperson of the National Commission for Women (NCW) Rekha Sharma made a visit to the Kalakshetra to enquire about the allegations of harassment at the institution.