The Hindu : Study reveals prevalence of sexual harassment

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 17, 2002

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Study reveals prevalence of sexual harassment

By Our Staff Correspondent

JAIPUR JULY 16. The Supreme Court's guidelines and directives for prevention of sexual harassment of women at workplaces have not been taken seriously in Rajasthan and "negligible'' efforts have been made to create awareness in this regard.

Surprisingly, even the State Women's Commission and the State Government's Directorate of Women and Children's Welfare have confined themselves to issuing routine circulars. The social norms and practices that influence women's lives in Rajasthan have been shaped by the legacy of feudalism and patriarchy.

These are the findings of a study on "Implementation of Supreme Court guidelines on sexual harassment at workplaces: An analysis'' undertaken by the Jaipur-based Pulitzer Institute of Communication Studies and Research under its research programme on subjects relating to media and society.

The study has underlined the significance of the issue of sexual harassment of women in the wake of the Supreme Court's landmark judgment laying down guidelines in the Vishakha vs. State of Rajasthan case. The apex court has, for the first time, explicitly defined sexual harassment at places of work and taken an initiative to prevent it so as to assure equal rights to women.

The study on various aspects of the judgment and the follow-up action was conducted by the institute's chairperson, Manohar Prabhakar, as the Project Director. The research team carried out extensive surveys and in-depth interviews with men and women. Focus group discussions were also organised to prepare the findings of the study.

The research coordinator, Kalyan Singh Kothari, who is also secretary of the Lok Samvad Sansthan, told The Hindu here today that the main objectives of the study were to analyse how the Supreme Court's guidelines had been implemented in organisations and institutions, understand the role of different organisations, such as the State Women's Commission, women's groups and NGOs, and identify the nature of sexual harassment experienced by women at workplaces.

The study has tried to break the silence that surrounds the issue. The work was based on a randomly selected sample of 95 women and five men employed in public and private undertakings. Mr. Kothari said the data was collected at various levels.

The Supreme Court verdict has specified preventive steps, complaint procedure and disciplinary action to stop sexual harassment. Other guidelines include affirmative discussion on the issue at meetings, notification to create awareness and adoption of measures by the Central and State Governments, including legislation to ensure that private employers too observe the guidelines. The study has discussed all of these in detail.

It has revealed that unmarried employees face greater harassment at workplaces and most cases of harassment are not reported. About 40 per cent respondents stated that they had experienced some form of sexual harassment at the workplace.

The frequency of harassment is so high that the sensibilities of women get blunted. Thus it is not surprising that women don't see any point in compaining about the harassment.

During the study, an effort was made to understand various manifestations of sexual harassment. The experiences indicate that sexual harassment is often used as a tool to ensure employee's submission. An unwelcome sexual conduct becomes an explicit or implicit condition of employment. Hostile work atmosphere demeans and humiliates the person addressed.

Some myths exploded by the study by presenting facts in the right perspective are: Sexual harassment is rare, women provoke harassment by the way they dress and behave, women make false complaints, and if you ignore sexual harassment, it will automatically go away.

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