Prevention of Sexual Harassment in the Workplace
By Muskan Javid Attar
TW: Mentions of Sexual Abuse
India is the fastest growing economy, showing accelerated progress in various aspects like trade, infrastructure, technology, living standards, service sector, etc. Despite these developments, women’s safety and security are constantly under threat. Every day, news of sexual harassment against women is breaking out in different states in India. These brutal incidents indicate that India needs to work on making its laws more effective and taking stricter action.
In today’s era, where women are working equally as men in every field, even then they have to face sexual harassment there too. Sometimes employers play the game of “this for that” in which, women are asked to engage in unwanted and unethical sexual activities to get a job or promotion and colleagues are also mentally torturing the women with sexual statements.
“Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (prevention, prohibition and redressal) Act, 2013” which is pertinent in the whole of India. This Act made it mandatory for all employers to set up an internal complaint committee at every branch if they have more than ten employees in the workplace. The committee must have a minimum of 4 members and 50% of them should be women.
Harassment can be any unwelcome activities like physical stroke, requesting or insisting for a sexual favour, making sexual comments, showing pornography and any other verbal, non-verbal and physical activity of sexual nature.
This Act also provides a platform to many women through which they can work freely and can protect themselves from unwanted behaviour at the workplace. The #metoo movement started with the hashtag being a symbol of fighting against harassment in the workplace. Then, this movement began to intensify sharply as many other survivors came forward, supported each other and reported these cases of sexual harassment. It puts more emphasis on the need to make the work environment safer for women on a wider spectrum.
The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 (“Sexual Harassment Act”) has been made effective on April 23, 2013, by way of publication in the Gazette of India. It has been enacted with the objective of providing protection to women against sexual harassment at the workplace and for the prevention and redressal of complaints of sexual harassment.