A Labour Law Assignment

On

Sexual Harassment at Work Place

Submitted to

Prof. Lionel Aranha

Submitted by

Bishnu Shanker Prasad

PGDBA-01/13

CIMP, BIHAR
Sexual harassment and rape are two sides of the same coin. Sexual harassment means
the victims are not physically harmed where as Rape means the victims ravished like an
animal. In both of the cases, female is suffered physically as well as mentally and the
fact is victim always be only one “Women”. Sexual harassment is all about expression of
male power over women. It is used to remind women of their vulnerability and
dominated status. According to the official statistics of 1991, one woman is molested
every 26 minutes and this Study tells that sexual harassment is often hidden and
present in all kinds of organizations and it touches lives of nearly 40-60% of working
women where as many unreported cases would be a matter of second rather than
minutes.

As defined in the Supreme Court guidelines (Vishakha Vs the State of Rajasthan, August
1997) Sexual harassment includes following unwelcome behaviour as:

 Physical contact (Grabbing, touching, pinching etc.)

 A demand or request for sexual favours
 Sexually coloured remarks (dirty jokes etc)
 Showing pornography (in form of picture, screen saver etc)
 Any other unwelcome physical, verbal or non verbal conduct of a sexual nature.

To understand the guidelines we can take an example of DPS school case.

As per the news of Indo-Asian News Service (Telling the South Asia story):

On Oct 12, 2009, the Delhi High Court asked the Delhi Public School (DPS) Society to
compensate (Rs. 2.5 lakh each) three of its teachers who were alleged sexual
harassment by the principal of Faridabad branch of the school. Justice S. Ravindra Bhatt
in his order asked DPS to pay Rs.2.5 lakh each to three of its teachers and Rs.1.5 lakh to
another employee of the school who had accused the then school principal U.S. Verma
of sexual harassment.

The teachers were forced to resign from their positions because of the allegation
(allegation is not available in the site). According to the teachers, the school principal
used to harass them even after they resigned from their jobs. The teachers also alleged
that Verma turned cruel when they turned down his advances and issued them memos,
stopped their confirmation, demoted them and insulted them openly.

In April 22, 1999, NCW (national commission for women) intervened in the matter. NCW
formed a committee to probe the complaint of the teachers in its report and confirmed
that the allegations of the school employees were true. So the DPS Society also
constituted a committee following the 1997 Supreme Court guidelines that clearly
stated that a sexual harassment committee has to be constituted immediately. The DPS
committee also found the allegations to be true.

Under Sec.294 and 509, when somebody sexually harasses or insults the modesty of a
woman by way of either- obscene acts or songs or- by means of words, gesture, or acts
intended to insult the modesty of a woman, he shall be punished.

According to the section, person will be punished for following reasons:

 Intention to insult the modesty of a woman.

 The insult be caused by
o Uttering any word or gesture, or
o Exhibiting any object with the intention that such word, gesture, or object
be hear or seen by such a woman, or
o By intruding upon the privacy of such woman.

All the teachers and staff members works under the principle in a school so it is a duty
of the principle to take care of all employee in the organization and look after them by
providing them good atmosphere and safety environment to work. Sexual harassment is
defined by its impact on the woman rather than the intent of the perpetrator.
Discriminatory behaviour and abuse is unlawful.

o Women have equal access to all work facilities.

o Safe work-place is women’s legal right.

Mr. Verma had not only insulted the teachers publicly but also knowingly done some
bad behavior with them and these behaviors come under sec. 294 and 509 and Mr.
Verma got punishment to pay compensation of Rs. 2.5 lakh to each teacher. This kind of
several phenomenons is going on but only some of them come before public. It is
imperative that managers, principles or higher authorities take the appropriate steps to
prevent sexual harassment such as:

Display Sexual Harassment Stating the seriousness of the matter and the
Poster consequences for those who do it
Provide Sexual Harassment mandatory sexual harassment training for all of it's
Training employees to educate them on what sexual harassment is
and how to prevent it
Practice Appropriate Office employees should reframe from the usage of vulgar,
Behavior demeaning, and offensive sexually orientated language in
the presence of other employees during work hours
DRESS APPROPRIATELY Employees should never dress inappropriately to purposely
entice their managers, supervisors, and co-workers
NEVER DISPLAY OR DISTRIBUTE Under no circumstances should an employee at any level
SEXUALLY EXPLICIT MATERIAL be allowed to display or distribute sexually explicit material
in the workplace
 References:
 http://www.legalserviceindia.com/articles/rape_laws.htm
 http://www.indiatogether.org/combatlaw/vol2/issue3/harass.htm
 http://trak.in/news/dps-asked-to-compensate-teachers-in-sexual-harassment-
case/13369/
 http://www.ehow.com/how_5638941_prevent-sexual-harassment-workplace-
now.html
 Class notes (ppts)