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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Sexual abuse law faces delay by Charu Sudan Kasturi

Sexual abuse law faces delay by Charu Sudan Kasturi

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published Published on Nov 18, 2009   modified Modified on Nov 18, 2009


Women and child development minister Krishna Tirath has ordered her ministry to initiate fresh consultations on a proposed law criminalising sexual harassment at the workplace, effectively delaying further a bill ready for cabinet approval.

Tirath has asked the ministry to hold fresh consultations with women’s rights groups and lawyers who have raised concerns that the bill does not adequately protect victims of sexual harassment, The Telegraph has learnt.

The minister’s order effectively signals a fresh review of the Sexual Harassment at the Workplace Bill, first drafted in 2007 and promised by the Congress ahead of the 2009 Lok Sabha elections.

The review, however, comes after several rounds of consultations already held with activists, lawyers and other stakeholders under Tirath’s predecessor Renuka Chowdhury.

The minister’s move coincides with a stage in the bureaucratic flow of the bill when a fresh review could send the proposed legislation once again to the start of the procedural pipeline.

The bill has been vetted by the law ministry, and the women and child ministry was planning to approach the cabinet for its approval -- following which it can be tabled in Parliament.

But any changes to the draft bill now -- as a consequence of the suggestions made during the consultations -- will mean that the proposed legislation will need to once again be circulated to all ministries for their comments. The law ministry too will need to vet the draft bill again.

The Supreme Court had laid down in 1997 a set of guidelines that all private and public firms must follow to tackle sexual harassment.

For the first time in India, the order defined sexual harassment -- including showing pornography, seeking sexual favours or making sexually coloured remarks. A complaint mechanism and a grievance redress framework that each public or private office must follow were also laid down.

But in prescribing penalties, the order restricted its ambit to “appropriate disciplinary action” taken under service rules.

Criminal proceedings, the order said, can be initiated against the accused “where such conduct amounts to a specific offence under the Indian Penal Code or under any other law”. The IPC punishes “outraging the modesty” of women through both physical assault (Section 354) and “gestures” and “acts” (Section 509).

But it does not specify what gestures and acts comprise a crime and, most crucially does not take into account the specific nature of workplace relationships.

Most complaints of sexual harassment at the workplace involve a complainant who is junior to the accused in the office hierarchy and are commonly of the nature of a superior seeking sexual favours -- subtly or explicitly.

Indirect or subtle demands for sexual favours have proved next to impossible to establish under the IPC -- particularly in the absence of any law safeguarding an employee against retribution for complaining.

The Sexual Harassment at the Workplace Bill was proposed in early 2007 to put in place a law -- referred to in the Vishakha judgement -- protecting women complainants from any retribution.

The bill also aims to specifically define sexual harassment to include gestures and acts that are rarely considered under the ambit of Section 509 of the IPC.


The Telegraph, 17 November, 2009, http://telegraphindia.com/1091118/jsp/frontpage/story_11753607.jsp
 

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