Did you know that students can play a crucial role in looking out for each other and creating a safer campus?
While colleges are meant to be safe spaces, they can also be sites of harassment and abuse for vulnerable groups. In such cases, students can show their solidarity by being active bystanders.
An active bystander within the context of sexual harassment on campus is one who makes an active attempt to stop harassment from taking place or intervenes to protect the survivor of any instance of harassment.
Bystander intervention is one way in which we can help stop potentially violent instances from taking place in our presence.
How Can One Be An Active Bystander?
College campuses can often enable violence against marginalised gender groups in implicit or explicit forms. For example, when students fail to recognise microaggressions (like unwanted sexually coloured jokes) or dismiss instances of verbal and physical violence for the sake of their reputation.
Being an active bystander means that we understand when a situation is harmful and try to prevent the harm or assist the survivor.
It is also important to note that bystander intervention does not mean putting oneself in harm’s way. If any situation is triggering or potentially physically harmful to one, confronting the aggressor is not recommended.
There are several indirect methods of intervention that can help a survivor in any situation. These include supporting the survivor by informing them of redressal mechanisms or providing emotional support after the incident.
The 3 D’s Of Bystander Intervention
Direct: A direct approach is when we interrupt the situation directly and challenge the aggressor. An example of this can be calling out harmful language or bullying.
We must keep in mind our own safety while taking a direct approach. If we feel threatened by the situation, we can opt to take the other two options listed below.
Distract: Distracting refers to interrupting a situation without directly confronting the aggressor. We can steer the conversation in another direction or take the survivor away from the situation. Through these methods, we can intervene and dissipate the situation.
Delegate: If we cannot directly approach a situation, we can instead delegate it to an administrative staff. This can be a professor or any other faculty member or security personnel.
Bringing the situation to their attention helps them intervene and also makes the aggressor wary as they feel they are under watch by fellow students.
How Can Bystander Intervention Make Campuses Safer?
Through bystander intervention, students can provide aid to survivors when faculty members are not present or when faculty members are themselves perpetrators of violence against students.
Moreover, students who take up the responsibility create a sense of solidarity among other students who are potentially at the risk of receiving harmful behaviour. They feel safer knowing that their classmates will intervene if they face threats of violence or bullying.
Students may also be unaware or apprehensive about approaching the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) due to fear or lack of information. As informed bystanders, we can support survivors by intervening and making them feel supported through the process.
Bystanders who are informed can advise survivors about the procedure by informing them about their rights and dissolving fears of intimidation.
Bystander intervention also creates accountability within the student community. Active instances of intervention make aggressors wary as they know their behaviour will not go unchecked.
As bystanders, we can create an environment where we hold aggressors accountable and marginalised gender groups feel supported. This is especially true of queer students and other marginalised groups on campus who may not feel supported by the institution, owing to systemic inequities.
Allies can actively support them through intervening in potentially violent situations.
Can Training Programs Help Educate Students About Bystander Intervention?
Under the UGC mandate, colleges must do more than simply constitute the ICC. Regular training sessions and sensitisation programmes are required of college officials to help students better understand their rights on campus and whom to contact in incidents of sexual harassment.
Training and advisory programs focus on educating students about what bystander intervention is and how they can be active bystanders while keeping their own safety in mind.
These training programs also make students aware of how they can hold each other accountable and how they can make marginalised groups feel safer on campus.
Many colleges like IIT-Ropar, IIT-Jammu and IIT-Kanpur were enquired under Jhatkaa.org’s RTIs. The public information officers from these institutions have said that students are not made aware of many of these issues and training programs were not held for them.
Bystander intervention can be an important aspect that students can be educated about within training programs and create a safer college campus that colleges must pay more attention to.
Conclusion
It is also essential to note that the responsibility for building a student-friendly college campus does not lie on an individual student but on the administration as a whole.
Bystander intervention can be a crucial aid in building a safer college campus, but the primary responsibility of providing support and redressal lies with the college administration.
Being an active bystander can also take a huge mental and emotional toll on an individual. Hence, it is essential to separate ourselves from the situation if we feel overwhelmed, with the knowledge that we did our best in the given situation.
Bystander intervention should only be perceived as a supporting mechanism and not a responsibility to provide protection and support to fellow students. We must not feel guilty for not doing “enough” in a situation that could cause us harm as well.
While empathising with a survivor and providing an immediate space of support for them, bystanders cannot and must not assume the role of a professional therapist as this has a negative effect on both the survivor and the bystander.
Actively propagating a system of support and care within college campuses is the most effective method that we as bystanders can do to contribute to building a safer college campus.