An ex-employee (name withheld) of Greenpeace, through an article has alleged that she had to leave her job in 2013 after being sexually harassed and raped by her colleagues. She said that her ordeal started a year after she had joined the NGO at their Bengaluru office. The first incident had happened during an official trip in October 2012. "I got a call from a senior colleague at 11 pm, asking me to vacate my room and insisting that I sleep in his suite. In another incident, he approached me physically despite my discomfort, insisted on force-feeding me birthday cake,' she said.
She registered a written complaint with the HR manager, but she did not receive any verbal or written communication from the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) of the organisation, which looks into sexual harassment cases.
"It was after a party, when a male colleague whom I knew quite well found me unconscious and raped me. You cannot imagine the pain and fear I went through. I was terrified to speak and I knew even if I had, no one in this organisation would come to my aid. I did not have the strength to report my rape, neither to the police, nor to my employers. How could I, when the processes had failed me once already?" she said.
Finally, she decided to tell her story through a Facebook post in. Immediately after her post, Greenpeace issued an apology on their website and promised her to re-investigate the case. Admitting the lax attitude in dealing with the case in 2012.
The victim alleged that the NGO's subsequent actions exposed their empty talk. "The ICC, which convened in March, recommended the termination of the offender, but the executive director overrode the decision on some pretext and the only thing I received was a written apology from the molester,'' she said.
While supporting the victim, another ex-senior manager Reema Ganguly, who was a part of the ICC, quit Greenpeace in May after executive director Samit Aich overrode the committee's recommendation. "The committee's suggestion of terminating the molester was overturned by the executive director, and they dismantled the committee, which was only three months old, whereas the duration (for such a committee) is for three years. It was very clear that the committee is an eye wash by the NGO,'' said Ganguly.
''We came to know that the committee decisions were leaked to many people in the office. So I sought legal opinion on this and I was told that since it is leaked, the decision stands invalid. So we dissolved the committee and reconstituted it,'' said Aich. "I have given a strong warning to the person and as a result, he has put in his papers. I admit that there have been flaws in our earlier system and we will tighten our disciplinary actions in the future,'' he added.
Greenpeace, which is funded with foreign funds, takes all the opportunity to defame the country and objects development of the country. They receive funds for helping the downtrodden and tribals. But the majority of the funds is utilised for the payment of salaries to its employees, which are much higher than corporate executives. The funds are also utilised for the luxurious lifestyle of the officers of the organization.
I wonder how this NGO can help the poor when they are not helping their own employee who has been sexually harassed and raped by its own officer. The government of India has taken the right step to ban the organization from receiving foreign funds. NGO’s has become a lucrative business to earn crores in the shortest time and is not answerable to anyone. If any question is raised, then they cry communalism.
By Premji
