In October 2017, Raya Sarkar, a 24-year-old law student from India, posted
a crowdsourced list on Facebook of male Indian academics who allegedly
harassed women. This led to the start of the #MeToo movement in India,
where universities became key spaces of discussion, debate and activism.
Due to failures of both the criminal justice system and the described
capitalist, patriarchal, casteist structures of Indian academia, hundreds of
survivors who had experienced sexual violence at universities came for-
ward online, disclosing their stories of harassment and abuse. Drawing
from interviews with seven sexual violence survivors who disclosed their
experiences online, this paper provides insight into reasons why survivors
choose to bypass formal reporting mechanisms in HEIs, and instead turn
to online spaces in their search for justice and healing. We argue that
students are wary of university processes and often seek alternative forms
of justice beyond the ‘punishment’ that HEIs are often unable or unwilling
to provide. As such, this article provides compelling empirical evidence of
the urgent need for universities to adopt survivor-centred approaches in
their processes and conceptualization of justice, as well as how online
spaces enable healing, catharsis and new means of informal justice.