Sexual Harassment

The question is not of law or creating deterrence, it is all about mindset of people, how they view the women at workplace, because people working in institutions are coming from the same society which has deep rooted biases against women.

The law must take care to protect women of differing perceptions and comfort levels. At the same time, the reaction of the complainant cannot be entirely unreasonable. A "calibrated balance" would have to be struck between rights of a victim of sexual harassment and those of the delinquent employee.

It is not enough to have just rules in place, the intent to implement should be there. A law requiring proforma setting up of overseeing body with no teeth to prosecute the perpetrators borders on useless.

In our day-to-day practice, we have observed that inapplicability of the law in industry requires many gaps and illusions to be addressed by the framers of the law. The enactment has been framed by the legislator considering the situations at that time. But our society is progressive and our law...

Any inquiry into a complaint of sexual harassment at the workplace must be in accordance with the relevant rules and in line with the principles of natural justice, the Supreme Court has clearly stated.

The employer must also carry out orientation programmes and seminars for the members of the Internal Committee, carry out employees' awareness programmes, conduct capacity building and skill building programmes for the members of the Internal Committee, and declare the names and contact details of...

Author in the article makes a case of challenges as mentioned, besides others, entails a need to re-visit the provisions of the Act to make them holistic, clear, practical and more effective.

Apart from having effective workplace policies and well-functioning complaint mechanisms, organisations must also focus on effective communication and dissemination of such workplace policies.

India Inc. needs to understand that the SHW law is merely a step in building a safe work environment for women to start with and all sexes to end with. If compliance is done as lip service, it is an opportunity lost. Workplaces need to be educated and empowered not just to comply with the law, but...

There is a thin line between moral obligation of respecting a female co-worker and the legal obligation to do so. The IC cannot superimpose its moralities on the workforce but must be guided by legal principles and determine outcome of the misconduct empirically.