Sexual harassment is a typical issue influencing all ladies right now of the calling that they are in, however legal system is resting thus they flop in giving them security. It's not all, ladies living in those nations having created lawful framework faces different issues like being terminated out of work, scorned, cultural weight or guarantees of wanted advancement, and so on that makes them left without any words. Lewd behavior is about male predominance over ladies and it is utilized to remind ladies that they are more fragile than man. In a general public where brutality against ladies is presented just to show the man centric worth working in the public arena, these estimations of men represent the best test in controling lewd behavior. Studies have demonstrated that 1 out of each 3 working ladies are moved by lewd behavior.
Each nation is confronting this issue today. No female laborer is sheltered and the feeling that all is well with the world is inadequate in them. There are sure improvements parents in law of numerous nations to shield ladies laborers from lewd behavior. During 2007 alone, the U.S. Equivalent Employment Opportunity Commission and related state organizations got 12,510 new charges of Sexual harassment at work.
Sexual harassment is established in social practices and is exacerbated by power relations at the working environment. Except if there is sufficient accentuation on refinement at the work environment, legitimate changes are not really liable to be fruitful. Work environments need to outline their own far reaching approaches on how they will manage inappropriate behavior. Rather than cobbling together panels at the court's mediation, a framework and a course of review should as of now be set up.
a) Physical contact and advances
India is a democratic country. All citizens have the fundamental right to live with dignity under article 21 of the constitution of India. But there is no law specifically dealing with sexual harassment. Laws are not able to provide justice to the victims. There are various cases brought before the supreme court of India but all cases were not successful in laying down new laws for sexual harassment. In 1997, Supreme court tried to lay down guideline in Vishakha’s case .These guideline were somewhat successful because in this case supreme court argued that there is a need for separate laws but it was not given the required attention.
According to the law in India, sexual harassment violates the women’s fundamental right of gender equality and life with dignity under article 14 and article 21 respectively. Although there are no specific laws for curbing sexual harassment at the workplace in India but certain provisions are there in other legislation like Indian Penal Code, which provides protection against women’s sexual harassments such as in IPC:
There is another act passed by legislature for protecting women’s interest namely, Indecent Representation of Women, Act (1997). This act has not been used in cases of sexual harassment but there are certain provisions in this act which can be used in 2 ways:
The harassed women can also go to civil courts for tortious actions like mental anguish, physical harassment, loss of income in employment of victim, etc.
Sexual harassment can be distinguished on two basis, one of them is quid pro quo in which a woman gets sexually harassed in exchange of work benefits and sexual favours this also lead to some retaliatory actions such as demotion and making her work in difficult conditions. Another is ‘hostile working environment’ which imposes a duty on employer to provide the women worker with positive working environment and prohibits sexist graffiti, sexual remarks showing pornography and brushing against women employees.
After few years of the guidelines set by the Supreme Court, the first attempt was made to frame suitable draft legislation with considerable involvement of and pressure from women’s organizations. This was called “the protection against sexual harassment of women bill, 2005”. However, that too gathered dust till it was replaced by “the protection of women against sexual harassment at workplace bill, 2007” which focused specifically on SH at the workplace, the reason presumably being that the 2005 bill was too wide ranging and hence difficult to implement.
This 2007 bill was not in the spirit of Vishakha because it defines aggrieved women as “…any female/persons whether major or minor, who allies that she/they have been subject to sexual harassment...” This bill is also silent on third party harassment and is emphasizing only on harassment within the workplace. This bill treats sexual harassment as a civil dispute whereas the Vishakha guideline has provided criminal proceedings for the same. A recent amendment in the draft bill is section 12 (1) which states that “if the allegations of sexual harassment are found to be false, the complainant can be punished for it”. This provision will create a new space for employers to manipulate the evidence to stand up against the women. It will abstain women from registering any complaints against the wrongdoer due to the fear that employers can take negative action against them so this part needs to be deleted.
The suggestions made above can make vishakha guideline to retain their spirit but at the same time it should also ensure that its scope should not become very extensive and riotous.
