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tegy to empower mobilise and organise women the participation of women in the committee enabled them to lead the committees and become an authority that curbed sexual harassment vishakha had an enabling and compassionate approach as it focused on prevention which was missing in the criminal law focus was shifted from convicting the perpetrator to protecting rights of women in relation to work converse to the crime and punishment understanding vishakha envisaged sexual harassment as an issue about equality and loss of dignity vishakha saw engagement with workplaces to assume a shared responsibility to foster change through prevention it promoted awareness by demystifying discomfort through encouraging meetings and discussions on sexual harassment with workers it saw a workplace with increased awareness on the issue of sexual harassment with collaboration between employers and trade unions with the assistance of government and non profit organisations this understanding characterised by vishakha saw a law preventive in its character as well as punitive the objective was to influence mindsets promote changes in attitudes towards women and sex discrimination in the workplace with the help of experts in committees set up to deal with sexual harassment at workplaces it was thought that behaviour changes prompted by awareness voluntarily introduced and advocated by the employer would be constructive compared to criminal litigation against those accused of sexual harassment this would help the complainant to build positive relationships with both men and women at the workplace however in the post vishakha era there was little effort both by the employers and the complaints committees to create awareness regarding the issue and the complaint mechanism this resulted in underreporting of sexual harassment complaints studies across india done in the nineties and next decade confirmed this scenario these studies brought forth that sexual harassment went largely unreported due to fear of stigma loss of reputation victim blaming and disbelief in the complaints amongst all the other reasons the studies identified poor levels of awareness amongst women as one of the key reasons one of the studies showed direct connection between lack of knowledge about the complaint mechanism within the organisation amongst women and low reporting of sexual harassment it concluded that poor levels of awareness about redress mechanisms amongst women were a critical challenge in reporting of sexual harassment more than a decade of prolonged struggle by the women s movement along with dialogue with the government resulted in the enactment of sexual harassment of women at workplace prevention prohibition and redressal act 2013 hereinafter referred to as 2013 act the act came into force on 9 december 2013 as the title suggests it is a legislation for women that recognises unequal power relations at workplaces it is an explicit form of affirmative action under article 15 3 of the indian constitution which allows the state to enact special legislations for women the aim is to empower women as a disadvantaged group due to certain factors in the patriarchal society five years after the act was enacted the metoo movement in india brought to light numerous complaints of workplace sexual harassment triggered discussions about gender inequities at workplace increased awareness at workplaces pertaining to sexual harassment patriarchal perceptions towards complainants attitude of employers lack of evidence in incidents of sexual harassment under reporting of misconduct power disparities at work between men and women as an accelerating factor in sexual harassment at workplace social isolation faced by complainants at workplace after reporting complaint but the me too revelations excluded women from the informal sector where the majority of women are employed almost ten years later court rulings reveal that implementation of the act is poor and fraught with problems the kolkata case wherein the trainee doctor was raped and murdered at her workplace is a glaring example of the same since the employer was unable to safeguard the victim from a person coming in contact with her workplace supreme court took suo motu cognizance of the incident reprimanded the hospital administration for its response after the doctor was found dead and remarked that if women cannot go to a place of work and be safe then we are denying them the basic conditions of equality similarly the hema committee report revealed widespread prevalence of sexual harassment in the malayalam film industry and prompted the kerala high court to orally express its displeasure over inaction by the kerala government on the same for four years it appears that employers are falling short of achieving these objectives thereby failing to uphold the constitutional values the above mentioned examples seem an obvious defeat of the objectives of vishakha and the constitutional values it upheld aiming at furthering dignity and equality at workplaces because vishakha came into existence with an aim of protecting dignity at workplace however taking into consideration the discussion above the task of restoring rights of women seems to be upon the courts as women are compelled to move the courts for protection of their rights at workplace violence prevents employment and blocks access of women to financial resources fear of sexual harassment may force women to make relatively poorer economic choices women are less likely to work away from home in regions where the perceived threat of sexual harassment against girls is higher consequently india has ranked 129th in the total of 146 countries as per the world economic forum global gender gap report 2024 which means that the goal of gender equality for women in india remains far unless organisations across sectors take institutional responsibility for an attitudinal shift workplaces will continue to be sexualised and toxic survivors will continue to be silenced and perpetrators will go about their lives without consequence the 2013 act definitely has the potential to carry forward the process of shifting power relations using the work initiated by the vishakha guidelines 1997 this can happen provided the employers implement the act from the standpoint of upholding constitutional values dr anagha sarpotdar is a practitioner and researcher working on social and legal aspects of sexual harassment at the workplace date december 8 2024 author psw team tags 25 blog symposium compliance implementation legal history workplace sexual harassment workplace sexual harassment law comments leave a comment 25 it s the skin which gets burnt not the spirit standard it s the skin which gets burnt not the spirit sudarshana chakraborty mirror mirror on the wall who is the fairest of them all the patriarchal society has etched this idea of a woman s beauty in one s mind in such a way starting from fairy tales to movies that it is really hard to look beyond that and the face of a woman especially that of a fair and therefore beautiful one becomes synonymous with her existence this is how the majority of women see themselves thanks to capitalist patriarchal socio economic culture to go back to my opening question what if one day the mirror stops recognizing the most familiar face one s own face how does one cope with that trauma how does one cope with that existential crisis the unbearable trauma that comes with unbearable pain this is what happens with women who survive acid attacks acid attack is one of the cruelest forms of sexual and gender based violence sgbv for years acid has become one of the most used forms of violence against women and according to the ncrb report west bengal is at the top of the list for consecutive three years unfortunately neither the awareness level nor the actions taken by the state government are enough to create resistance against this form of sgbv there is a pattern of these attacks if we follow the case studies we will see not exactly urban but suburban areas are where most acid attacks take place young women who match conventional beauty standards getting an education have decision making powers are independent minded and can say no to unwanted male romantic overtures are those who face the attacks acid attacks are becoming a common part of property feuds and rape and murder cases the availability of acid in the open market despite legal directions on prohibiting such sale is the main reason for the increase of such acid attacks another reason is delayed justice or no punishment for the perpetrator it sends the message that even after committing such a heinous crime one can escape punishment the fact that more and more young women are going out for education and finding independence by choosing their own career is enraging men with a typical patriarchal mindset who still consider women only in terms of their body image they believe that harming or destroying a woman s body in this case specifically her face is the only way to stop her from achieving her dreams of a better life while also avenging their own rejection a woman with burn scars still faces a social taboo so it becomes extremely difficult to complete education get a job or start a relationship of her choice start a family or even stay with the natal family this is in addition to the extreme physical pain and the trauma of losing one s face which forms the primary identity acid attack creates a disability which is now listed under the 21 types of disability in rights of persons with disabilities rpwd act 2016 however it is not easy for acid attack survivors to accept the identity of a person with disability given the stigma related to disability notably the women s rights movement is not vocal enough about acid attacks and acid attack survivors are still trying to find their space within the disability rights movement the role of the state government often comes under scrutiny proactive steps by a state government to stop the sale of acid in the open market spread awareness about this crime and its punishment could change the scenario advocates judiciary and the medico legal system still lack sensitivity and it is hard for survivors to get compensation the role of the media is also quite stereotypical in this case either it is news for one or two days or hero worship of acid attack survivors the coverage is never in depth and intended to create awareness sensitize people and the system in the circumstances acid attack survivors are themselves trying to change the game many of them have become change makers and activists they have counseled themselves and while fighting with the trauma have decided not to cover their burnt faces they have accepted their new identity and are sending a message to society that they can live their life with scars and fight for justice they carry on everyday balancing medical treatment psychological counseling legal battles livelihood challenges and awareness activities these are all issues that should get attention beyond just a news report of an acid attack it s the skin which gets burnt not the spirit sudarshana chakraborty is a journalist based in west bengal she is a laadli media award regional winner for the years 2021 2024 in the bengali web feature category she is a 2024 25 prajnya r rajaram grit media fellow date december 7 2024 author psw team tags 25 acid attacks blog symposium comments leave a comment 25 preventing child sexual abuse a 25 year review audio standard vidya reddy tulir date december 6 2024 author psw team tags 25 blog symposium child sexual abuse comments leave a comment 25 one stop centres are straddling promise and pressure standard one stop centres are straddling promise and pressure since implementation tanya rana crime against women caw in delhi increased significantly by 42 between 2020 and 2021 in 2022 caw remained almost unchanged from the previous year what does this statistic suggest on one hand the increase may suggest that women are more vulnerable to crimes in the city on the other hand an increase in caw might signal better response services for survivors of violence given most such cases go unreported in the aftermath of jyoti singh s gang rape and murder in delhi in 2012 the usha mehra committee was constituted to recommend measures for improving safety in delhi and the national capital region one of its recommendations was to implement a comprehensive hub providing services such as shelter psycho social counselling medical police and legal assistance for survivors of violence in every district of the country in 2015 the government of india goi under the aegis of the ministry of women and child development launched the one stop centres oscs after initially implementing 36 oscs on a pilot basis goi has been setting up oscs in all districts across the country as of 30 september 2024 there were 790 operational oscs since its inception over 9 93 lakh women have sought assistance at oscs the number of women seeking help has been steadily increasing year on year too however in a study conducted by my colleagues and i we found that the number of oscs operational in the country is grossly inadequate we found that this has led to a vicious cycle in which under investing in such facilities manifests into low redressal and perpetuates under reporting of violence an important question however persists if the objective of an osc is to ease a survivor s access to redressal by pooling in different authorities and services why are they still under resourced to answer this question i am undertaking a preliminary study on the functioning of oscs there have been several media reports about the ineffective functioning of oscs in the country but if we were to reimagine women s safety their access to safety and why there are gaps in its functioning it is important to unpack the layers of its service provisioning here s an example describing domestic violence cases coming to her centre in delhi the caseworker told me it is easy to leave a marriage and women come with that intention she added we work on the problem because otherwise my job is meaningless this has a few implications one the caseworker who is in most cases the first point of contact for a survivor is looking to find meaning in her job by ensuring that families are not broken up second dealing with over 40 50 cases coming to her centre every month suggests the high workload and perhaps an inability to correctly assess what a survivor may truly need as redressal mechanisms are geared towards reconciliation as i previously mentioned there are several layers to such a set up of institutionalised redressal no one actor can be held accountable for its gaps it is thus important to understand the capabilities of different actors to perform their roles well their training referral systems and osc finances among others in my study therefore i locate front line bureaucrats and survivors attitudes and...
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