‘Sexual harassment at workplace another expression of power game of patriarchal society’

Senior Correspondent

NewsBits.in

BHOPAL: Sexual harassment at workplace is another expression of power game that persists in society, where persons in powerful position take advantage of those in comparatively underprivileged positions.

It is this point that usually prevents the harassed persons not to raise their voices or give in to pressures even after lodging a complaint. These points were highlighted at an interaction session with media on the ‘status of implementation of sexual harassment of women at workplace Act, 2013’.

The interaction was organized by NGO Sangini with Partners for Law in Development (PLD) with support of UN Women on Monday.

Nandini Rao and Rachana Sharma discussed the details of the Act and also held discussions on the perceptions of media persons about the Act, especially in context of Madhya Pradesh.

The resource persons mentioned though there are no statistics yet available in India about prevalence of sexual harassment at workplace, it is obvious from examples that only few are reported or taken to conclusion.

It is therefore necessary that proper awareness was created at workplaces about the nuances and provisions of the Act. This is because it is about gender equality, equal treatment to all employees, women’s rights and justice.

Some of the interesting highlights of the Act are that it is applicable only to women as ‘victims’ and men as ‘perpetrators’ and is also applicable to ‘third party’ perpetrators meaning if the harasser is anyone even outside regular workplace of the woman but connected to the work of women.

Prarthana Mishra of Sangini mentioned about the district level complaint committees functioning in Madhya Pradesh.