Reporting of sexual harassment cases: More needs to be done

Willingness to come out and complain depends on institutions/companies

“One swallow doesn’t make a summer,” was how Delhi University teacher Madulika Banerjee, part of a group that helped pursue a young colleague’s complaint some years ago, put it when asked about whether more women were coming forward to report sexual harassment.

Banerjee recalls the arduous task she undertook and the humiliation on the way. “It was very hard to get the students to come forward and talk about it,” said Banerjee, adding additional evidence was collected from students who had complained informally. “The courts stepped in and allowed the accused to cross-examine all the witnesses. It was humiliating,” she says.

 

Now, the environment may have changed, she feels.

Lawyer Vrinda Grover, who has fought for women's rights, including appearing before a committee that reformed a law on rape this year, agrees. “Sexual harassment is rife, rampant and widespread. Its reporting depends on how it is received. If you create an environment which is positive, more will come out and report it,” said Grover, named among Time magazine’s 100 most influential people for 2013. “(Earlier), there was no reporting. If a few are coming out against powerful judges, against powerful editors, (then it is going up).”

 

Gender violence and gender issues came into focus after the gang-rape of a 23-year-old student in a Delhi bus led to her death in December 2012. Thousands took to the streets, demanding a more stringent law against the crime. In April this year, a new law granted stricter punishment for rape, besides bringing stalking and acid attacks under its purview.

Vishakha committees
Last month, a detailed report by The Washington Post said though there was growing awareness of sexual harassment at the workplace in India, women are still afraid to register a complaint. Lira Goswami, senior partner with Delhi-based law firm Associated Law Advisers, who instruct companies on the law, told The Washington Post, when a woman was harassed, “her family tells her to hush it, ignore it. Others say it will blemish her reputation. Our society is always telling women to cover up the abuse, though it is rampant”.

In a 1997 judgment, the Supreme Court had ordered offices and workplaces to have a committee to deal with sexual harassment, to be headed by a woman employee. However, there is no data on how many companies have these panels, called Vishakha committees.

Grover said if institutions responded positively to sexual harassment charges, more such cases would come out in the open. “We have not even begun to uncover (sexual harassment at the workplace),” she said.

'This will be known as the year rapists, sexual molesters, perverts, predators and other assorted Indian creeps realised they could no longer count on that one big assumption that made them so brazen: Indian women don't like sharing horror stories," Mint's Priya Ramani said in a column on Thursday.

A lawyer who has campaigned for a forum of women lawyers in the Supreme Court said she wanted her forum to be represented in the committee to investigate a law intern's charge against a judge. "Now, women are coming out of (their) fear and they complain," she said.