ALL INDIA DEMOCRATIC
WOMEN’S ASSOCIATION
NO. 2253- E , SHADI KHAMPUR, NEW RANJIT
NAGAR,
NEW DELHI-110008
PH: 011-25700476, 25709565
Email : aidwacec@gmail.com, aidwa@rediffmail.com
4th Sept.2012
PRESS RELEASE
AIDWA welcomes the long overdue passage of the Sexual
Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Bill,
2010, in the Lok Sabha, on Sept 3rd 2012 . It has taken 15
years for the formulation of a legislation to define sexual harassment at the workplace
and make legal provisions for its prevention and for expediting disciplinary
action against offenders, as laid down by the Supreme Court under the Vishakha
guidelines (1997).
AIDWA
notes that the Bill is comprehensive in its definition of sexual harassment, as
well as in other areas it seeks to cover. The definition of sexual harassment includes any unwelcome act or behaviour,
demand for sexual favours, making sexually coloured remarks, or showing
pornography, etc, and any other physical, verbal, or non verbal conduct of a
sexual nature. The Bill has also made it mandatory for all offices, hospitals,
institutions and other workplaces to have an internal complaints redress
mechanism. Non-compliance with the provisions of the law has been made punishable with a fine of up to Rs
50,000. Repeated violations may lead to higher penalties and cancellation of
licence or registration to do business.
However, while the demand for inclusion of domestic
workers has been accepted, there are some glaring lacunae and gaps in the Bill that
are still to be addressed. The Bill
leaves out women agricultural workers, who form a large segment of the
unorganized labour force, including under the MGNREGA. Women working in fisheries,
forests, or in construction work sites, roads, stations, trains, etc, must be
brought under its purview. The women employees in the armed forces must also be
covered under the Bill. In the unorganized sector, the restriction in the
number of workers to less than ten should be done away with. The Bill needs to be amended so as to rectify
these weaknesses and loopholes.
Moreover,
AIDWA strongly objects to the inclusion of the clause which allows for penal
action against the complainant in the Bill, which will defeat its very purpose.
We had repeatedly asked for the removal of the “complaint with malicious intent”
clause. This not only goes against the Vishakha guidelines, which explicitly
state that the complainant should not be victimized in any way, but also
completely undermines the victim’s ability to file complaints of sexual
harassment. The Standing Committee had also noted this aspect. Women victims of
sexual harassment at the workplace are in an extremely vulnerable position and
the AIDWA experience has been that in most such cases, allegations of falsehood
and malicious intent are invariably leveled against them. Hence, we demand removal
of this clause from the Bill.
AIDWA
also demands that the enquiry must be conducted in a more time bound manner.
The recommendations of the local committee should be acted upon within 30 days
of submission of their report. The Bill seeks to give preferred treatment to
the accused, by protecting his identity. While the identity of the complainant
need not be known, there is no reason to extend such protection to the accused,
otherwise these incidents would not even come to light.
AIDWA
demands passage of the Bill in the Rajya Sabha, after incorporating these
important amendments, so that women victims of sexual harassment at the
workplace can be assured of justice and legal protection.
Sd/- Sd/- Sd/-
Shyamali
Gupta Kirti
Singh Sudha Sundararaman
(President) (Legal
Convenor) (General
Secretary)
No comments:
Post a Comment