Associate Professor, Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, Kalady, Kerala
In a region that has for over a decade registered literacy rates of over 90 percent and about 60 percent of the students enrolled in higher education are females, one expects the campus to be a liberating space instead of an instrument of community control. But Kerala is not as progressive on gender relations as its left-leaning politics and positive human development indices suggest. Young women from across religious, caste, and class backgrounds are accustomed to unquestioned acceptance of discrimination with gender-based violence veiled in silence.
Defying the stereotype of a Malayali Muslim girl, Sheeba’s journey to fight gender discrimination began as a researcher when she joined a group of like-minded women to uncover a sexual exploitation scandal in Kozhikode. She moved on to volunteer for several years with the Anweshi Women’s Counselling Center, Calicut, that helped women come out of exploitative situations and access justice. Later while teaching at the University in Kalady, Sheeba organized a pressure group on campus to push for the institutionalization of anti-sexual harassment norms. She independently drafted a policy based on practices at other progressive campuses in the country. Despite stiff resistance from seniors and colleagues, she refused to cower down. Her relentless struggle over nine years led to the establishment of an Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) at the University. She then advocated for gender trainings for members of the Committee to ensure that they dealt with cases of sexual harassment with sensitivity.
Sheeba continues to put her energies into educating students, faculty, and staff on gender discrimination across several campuses. She edits a feminist monthly – Sanghaditha. Also facilitating gender trainings for Ward members, officials, and field-workers in the Kerala Panchayats, she carries the message of safe public spaces for women to new constituencies in rural areas.
Sheeba K.M. is Professor at the Department of History, Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, Kalady, Kerala. She serves as Coordinator, Dakshayani Velayudhan Centre for Women’s Studies, and was former Coordinator of the Post Graduate Program in Gender, Ecology and Dalit Studies. Dr. Sheeba has been a Resource Person on Gender at the Academic Staff Colleges of the University of Kerala, Calicut and Kannur for the past twenty years.
She served as Committee Member, Samaagati Report on Gender Justice on Campuses, Kerala State Higher Education Council; Executive Committee Member, Indian Association of Women’s Studies; and Executive Committee Member, Inter University Centre for Social Science Research and Education, Mahatma Gandhi University.