The Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC) has written to the government, suggesting some major amendments to the Protection of Women against Sexual Harassment at Workplace Bill, 2010, ahead of a conference of State Ministers for women and child development, to be chaired by Union Minister Krishna Tirath here on Friday.
The conference agenda includes, among a host of issues, a look at this key piece of legislation.
The NAC, at its meeting on January 10, discussed the draft law exhaustively and made three key recommendations — expansion of the definition of the workplace to include homes, the workplace of domestic workers; deletion of Clause 14 (punishment for false or malicious complaint and false evidence), which might deter victims from seeking protection of the proposed legislation; and inclusion in the proposed legislation, clear guidelines to district officers to constitute and ensure the functioning of local complaints committee for those situations or small institutions where no internal complaints committee can be constituted. On January 14, the NAC forwarded its recommendations to the government.
‘Widen scope of Bill'
Later, an NAC member explained that if the Bill was really intended “to promote gender equality and justice and the universally recognised human right to work with dignity,” it was of paramount importance to widen the scope of the Bill to include domestic workers. “In Mumbai, not so long ago,” the member pointed out, “a well-known male actor had been accused by his domestic help of rape. But eventually the case was dropped under pressure. It is precisely for this sort of case that such a law is required.”
In its letter to the government, the NAC pointed out that most “domestic workers are poor, illiterate, unskilled and come from vulnerable communities and backward areas. They are underpaid and ill-treated, as domestic work is undervalued and poorly regulated. Their workplace, being the confines of private homes, domestic workers, especially live-in workers, are prone to sexual harassment and abuse, without access to any complaint mechanism or remedial measures.”
The removal of Clause 14, NAC sources said, was equally important to ensure that women felt free to make complaints of sexual harassment: only too often, witnesses vanished and it was difficult then to prove the case.
If Clause 14 is included, it will ensure that very few women will come forward to make a complaint, these sources added.
The Bill, that was introduced in the Lok Sabha on December 7, 2010, is likely to come up in the forthcoming budget session of Parliament.
