Law Relating to Sexual Harassment of Women at the Workplace in India: A Critical Review

Abstract

It is a harsh reality that despite of various international laws for equality as well as empowerment of women and various provisions of Indian Constitution along with various legislative measures, with the increase in the women workforce, they still are denied the enjoyment of economic empowerment and are facing sexual harassment on roads and also in their workplace at global and also at national level. In the case of Vishaka v. State of Rajasthan, the Apex Court of India acknowledging the first time sexual harassment as unwelcome act laid down exhaustive guidelines for its prevention. The guidelines framed by Supreme Court then received a legal shape in the form of Sexual Harassment of Women at the Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, ‘The Gender Sensitization and Sexual Harassment of Women at the Supreme Court of India (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Regulation, 2013’ and UGC (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal of Sexual Harassment of Women Employees and Students in Higher Educational Institutions) Regulations, 2015 but the Act and the Regulations fall far short of the norms set by the Vishaka judgment. In recent times, a number of judgements have been pronounced providing reliefs to the victims of sexual harassment at working place but this grievous form of crime against women still continues to be a matter of concern. In order to curb this heinous crime, first of all, the faulty and controversial clauses in the present Act and regulations need to be considered and amended; monitoring mechanisms need to be adopted seriously; level of awareness needs to be raised among the general public and at the last Women Reservation Bill for providing political participation to women needs to be enacted.