India Fighting Against Workplace Sexual harassment

Any unwanted sexual behavior, approaches, or remarks that create a threatening, hostile, or offensive atmosphere in the workplace, in school, or in any other context constitute sexual harassment. Workplace exploitation is a very common problem faced in both developed and a developing nations. Sexual harassment can happen between people of different genders or the same gender and can take the form of verbal, physical, or visual abuse. A few examples of sexual harassment could include sexual comments, unwanted touching, sexual language, sexual advances, etc.

Sexual Harassment at Work

This issue affects both men and women, but sexual harassment at work disproportionately targets women. Sometimes, the variety of behaviours covered by this term makes it challenging for the person to communicate what they experienced. Determining this In 1997 Supreme Court of India developed few guidelines for sexual harassment at work named after Vishakha Guidelines.

Vishakha Guidelines

You must follow these procedural guidelines in the case of sexual harassment at the workplace. They were created by the Supreme Court of India in 1997. Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act of 2013 further revised them.

The creation of the guidelines resulted from a gang rape of a social worker in Rajasthan, India, in 1992.

The victim’s organisation petitioned the Supreme Court in a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) for rules to stop sexual harassment in the workplace. The Vishakha Guidelines established a number of guidelines to ensure that employers do not subject women to sexual harassment at work. Among the fundamental ideas are:

Sexual harassment prevention:

Employees expect employers to take action to prevent sexual harassment from happening at work. This include creating and implementing a sexual harassment policy, educating staff members about the issue. Its establishing up a process for filing complaints about sexual harassment.

Defination of Sexual Harassment:

According to the guidelines, sexual harassment is any unwanted sexual behaviour, such as physical contact, asking for sexual favours, making sexually explicit comments. Pornography is among the things it displays.

Complain Mechanism:

It states that employers must set up a complaint process for employees to use to report instances of sexual harassment. This system ought to be confidential, user-friendly, and gender-sensitive.

Redress of complaints:

Employees anticipate action from companies to stop workplace sexual harassment. Ensure a fair and impartial investigation, offer the complainant temporary relief, and, if required, take disciplinary action against the harasser.