Harnessing the Harassment!

Recently, two news appeared in  newspapers that caught my attention, one relating to sexual harassment case filed against a Phd student of JNU by his professor and the other by a woman employee against Pauchauri.  While first case seems to be a story of an unhappy woman whose relationship has fallen, second case is indeed worth a thought.

Many of our offices do not have a sexual harassment committee/cell, and where there is one, the people who sit on the board are those who are close to the authority.  I have heard stories from many organisations where when a woman complains of harassment, she is termed belligerent, negligent in her duties etc. Lens moves towards questioning her commitment to work instead of focusing on the harassment she has faced!  When the perpetrators are strong and mighty, we see the whole system conspiring in order to save the mighty.

Well, this is  one battle that evey woman has to fight alone! 

Also, it is imperative to raise voice against any sexual passes at workplace at the very first instance. Sometimes, we ignore thinking it will pass, and we avoid creating a scene or a gossip, not realising thst eventually it become one. We do not realise that even acceptance of such instance encourages a repeat behaviour. 

Law mandates that every institution must have a sexual harassment committee (SC issued guidelines way back in 1997 in this regard). Issues lies with the fact that either such committees don't exist, or where they exist, it only exist on paper, and not many in the organisation/institution would know about it.

Offices must set up a women cell, with a neutral person on the board or with a woman of any near by social organisation who could work independently. There will be no cost involved as this cell can work in a virtual space and email communication can be mode of complaint. Most importantly, this cell should not be brought under supervision of any executive authority such as director of the institution, instead be supervised by a collective board, making it's functioning more objective.

As far as the first case of JNU teacher complaining against her student is concerned,I think institutions must prescribe a code of conduct refraining such interaction among the student teacher community. Teacher must stand on a  very high ethical foothill. 

There is also a need to re look into the law relating to "consent based on false promise to marriage", resulting in registering of case of Rape. In urban set up, both women and men are matured enough to understand the consequence of their relationship. Seldom, in such cases a woman is coaxed, coerced, or duped into consenting, that too where incident is continual in nature. 

Why should law allow woman to harness such relationship and use it as a sword when the couple face a irretrievable breakdown!   Law recognises domestic cohabitation and has forwarded certain rights to woman for their safety.  Filing a case of rape, where consensual cohabitation occurs which later breaks down, is like taking it to another extreme. Even a breakdown of marriage can give woman right to maintenance and not right to file a case of rape!