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Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace

(Practical Training Paper-V)

Essay submitted by

Vidya R John

1st Year LLB, 2nd Semester

Sexual Harassment at Work Place
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It all began when Bhanwari Devi, a saathin or village-level worker in Bateri in Rajasthan's Bassi tehsil took a stand, risking her life and her family's, showing extraordinary courage in the face of a social boycott after five men raped her in 1992 when she tried to stop a child marriage. But she stood her ground. The incident changed her life and shaped the women's movement in Rajasthan. The most frightening part was that the heinous crime was committed to teach Bhanwari Devi a lesson for exposing a child marriage in the village. The five accused took it almost like a challenge to hurt Bhanwari Devi.

18 years on, Bhanwari Devi’s fight for justice continues. But after that day on September 22, 1992, the movement managed one significant victory, the Vishakha judgment of August 1997. The verdict, on a PIL filed by Vishakha and four other women's groups in Rajasthan against the State and the Union of India, provided the basic definitions of sexual harassment at the workplace and also laid down guidelines for dealing with it.

Sexual Harassment affects all women in some form or the other. Lewd remarks, touching, wolf-whistles, looks are part of any woman’s life, so much so that it is dismissed as normal. Working women are no exception. In fact, working women most commonly face the backlash to women taking new roles, which belong to male domains within patriarchy. Sexual Harassment at work is an extension of violence in everyday life and is discriminatory, exploitative, thriving in atmosphere of threat, terror and reprisal.

What Is Sexual Harassment??

The Hon’ble Supreme Court of India in its Vishakha guidelines defines sexual harassment as any unwelcome sexually determined behaviour such as:

• Physical contact and advances, • A demand or request for sexual favour, • Sexually coloured remarks, • Showing pornography, and • Any other unwelcome physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct of a sexual nature.
Sexual Harassment takes place if a person:- • subjects another person to an unwelcome act of physical intimacy, like grabbing, brushing, touching, pinching etc. • makes an unwelcome demand or request (whether directly or by implication) for sexual favours from another person, and further makes it a condition for employment/payment of wages/increment/promotion etc. • makes an unwelcome remark with sexual connotations, like sexually explicit compliments/cracking loud jokes with sexual connotations/ making sexist remarks etc. • shows a person any sexually explicit visual material, in the form of pictures/cartoons/pin-ups/calendars/screen savers on computers/any offensive written material/pornographic e-mails, etc. • engages in any other unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature, which could be verbal, or even non-verbal, like staring to make the other person uncomfortable, making offensive gestures, kissing sounds, etc.

To give you an idea of what happens, how it happens, and what are the repercussions of sexual harassment, I have put together a couple of case studies-
A) Sneha is a Tax Assistant in a Government Department. Like her colleagues, Sneha sends and receives dozens of email messages everyday. The vast majority are work-related, with the occasional personal note from parents or an old friend. Though the department discourages personal use of email accounts, everyone does it. Lunch invitations, office gossip and social announcements are routine.
One day Sneha received an intriguing message labeled "You..." from an unidentified source. When the rest of the message read,." ..turn me on," Sneha wondered who sent it. Though attractive, Sneha is currently single and has been for some time. A few days later, Sneha received another message from the mysterious source, this one an embarrassing description of her physical attributes. Irritated, Sneha ignored the unwanted attention and hoped that it would stop. Instead, the messages began to occur more frequently and got more offensive.
Sneha had trouble concentrating on her work as she wondered who was harassing her and why. She began to feel uncomfortable in the office and viewed her co-workers suspiciously. She considered telling her supervisor, but worried about being teased or labeled a troublemaker. When she finally dared to confide in a co-worker, she told Sneha that she was lucky to have a "fan!!!”
Ultimately fed up, Sneha brought this matter to the notice of a colleague who was posted to Vigilance Section, who also incidentally happened to be a member of the committee created to handle cases of sexual harassment of women at the work place. Knowing that much could not be expected from the department, which is yet to come of age to deal with such matters; this colleague decided to act in a novel manner. The computer used by Sneha was publicly withdrawn under panchnama with lot of hue and cry to attract maximum attention and was locked up in the Vigilance section. Thereafter, there were lots of talks in the section that the same was handed over to the Forensic Department for detailed investigations and that the IP addressees of all the email messages were being tracked. There were talks that disciplinary action would be initiated against the guilty person invoking major penalty and also that steps to file a criminal complaint would also be in the offing!
Soon enough, frightened by the talks, Arun, another Tax Assistant, confessed that he was the one sending the emails as he was angry with Sneha who had scolded him for not doing his job properly! A formal complaint was lodged by Sneha and the case was handed over to the Committee for women, which was already in place following the guidelines issued by the Hon’ble SC in the Vishaka case. The HOD was informed about Arun’s behaviour and he was placed under immediate suspension stating that disciplinary proceedings were being contemplated against him. The matter is still being heard at the time of writing.
Another case which came up on a HR site posted by a member was a real shocker!
B. ‘One of my friends lost his job on sexual harassment falsely foisted against him. An allegation is made by his own subordinate, since my friend is very strict where his job is concerned.
About my friend: He is in the HR field for more than 10 years. Due to his excellent performance, he had a very good career growth. About two years back he joined a Co (say ‘X’). During his confirmation, he got a promotion with almost 90% inc. in salary. This has created lot of unpleasantness among other employees. There were two subordinates working under him, both were female employees.
About the subordinate (Say S1) :
a. This was her first job and she had just joined the company.
b. She was not sincere in her job and her efforts in learning were also very poor.
c. He has advised her number of times to improve her performance.
d. She is a spinster.
About another subordinate (S2) : a. She had prior experience and was good at work.
b. she has taken his advice in right spirit and improved her performance. c. She is a married girl. Issue: They would very often have get-togethers in their section. During one such get-together, these two subordinates along with a Security Manager (not my friend) took some photographs. S1 informed S2 that she would send a photograph after cropping (removing her picture) to her husband. S2 got annoyed and complained about it to the HR Manager (my friend). He started conducting enquiry on this issue. All of a sudden, S1 sent a letter (dated well prior to the incident) to the GM of the Unit alleging that she was being sexually harassed by HR Manager. He was asked to submit his resignation. Since he refused to submit his resignation and demanded for enquiry, they conducted a third party enquiry and based on the report, they dismissed him. The enquiry was also a biased one, since he was not given any opportunity to cross-examine the opposite parties. After end of the enquiry and before he was served the dismissal order, he made a representation to the Enquiry Officer about the availability of some more proof (mails sent by GM to the Operations Head about his refusal of submitting resignation and whether to terminate him. These mails were sent well before the conduction of the enquiry). The most important part was that although the company had a Sexual Harassment Committee as required by the statute, no complaint was made to the Committee and no enquiry was also conducted by them!
From the above case, it is obvious that sexual harassment is not limited to women alone, but since men are not sensitive to harassing behavior that women (or at least feminists) construe as harassment, it’s not surprising that they are not filing many harassment complaints. It is seen that many a times the female bosses and managers exploit their power over men in the office and male victims are more likely to complain of second kind of harassment - where a female manager treats women more favourably than men or criticises male employees more regularly.
One thing is sure that for most people, a sexual-harassment case can equal a nightmare, no matter which side they find themselves fighting on!
Existing Laws for Sexual Harassment –

Laws under Indian Penal Code (IPC)

• Section 209: Obscene acts and songs, to the annoyance of others like: a) does any obscene act in any public place or b) sings, recites or utters any obscene song, ballad or words in or near any public place. Punishment: Imprisonment for a term up to 3 months or fine, or both. (Cognizable, bailable and triable offense) • Section 354: Assault or use of criminal force on a woman with intent to outrage her modesty. Punishment: 2 years imprisonment or fine, or both • Section 376: Rape Punishment: Imprisonment for life or 10 years and fine • Section 509: Uttering any word or making any gesture intended to insult the modesty of a woman Punishment: Imprisonment for 1 year, or fine, or both. (Cognizable and bailable offense)
Some of the History-making cases of Sexual Harassment, world-wide are as listed below-
Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky: Perhaps the most famous Presidential scandal in our times, Bill Clinton's affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky escalated far beyond the Oval Office. Eventually, he became the second U.S. president to face an impeachment trial.
Bill Clinton and Paula Jones: As governor of Arkansas, former President Bill Clinton allegedly "propositioned [Paula Jones] and exposed himself to her in a Little Rock hotel room," as reported by The Washington Post. Clinton never admitted to the sexual-harassment charges, despite the "brutal legal and public-relations battle" which ensued during the mid-1990s. The case was resurrected in the public eye during the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
Japanese Beard Pluckers: A female employee in Japan complained that her boss sexually harassed her when he "forced [her] to pluck his beard." According to the Legal Herald, the man "was fined $5,000 for his conduct."
Deepak Chopra v. Joyce Weaver: Writer, doctor and spiritualist Deepak Chopra was involved in a set of hearings and a trial case instigated by former employee Joyce Weaver, who claimed "that she was wrongfully terminated because she had accused Chopra of sexual harassment." After only 10 minutes, the jury dismissed the case and found Chopra innocent.

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References:-
1. http://www.indianexpress.com/news/sexual-harassment-at-workplace/571636/ (13.01.2011) 2. http://www.hrworld.com/features/top-20-sexual-harassment-cases-121307/ (13.1.2011)

3. http://www.indiatogether.org/combatlaw/vol2/issue3/harass.htm

4. (13.1.2011) 5. http://gayathiri1.tripod.com/sexualharassmentatwork.html (13.01.2011)

6. http://www.legalserviceindia.com/articles/sexual_har.htm (13.01.2011)

7. http://www.citehr.com/162546-sexual-harassment-case-study.html#axzz1AvzAzxps (13.01.2011)

8. http://www.indiatogether.org/combatlaw/vol3/issue5/visakha.htm (13.01.2011)

9. Combat Law, Volume 2, Issue 3

10. Private sources