Proposed sexual harassment at workplace bill worries men

“Adam, who was sweet-talked into committing the original sin, is set to be enslaved by her with the passing of the Protection of Women Against Sexual Harassment at Workplace Bill-2010, which is being presented in parliament on Tuesday,” said Save India Family Foundation (SIFF) activists.

“The bill, purported to save women employees from sexual harassment in workplace, is a misplaced piece of legislation that seeks to derail professionalism and efficiency at work and endanger genial gender relationship in workplace,” said Virag Dhulia, a crusader for gender parity and an activist of SIFF. “In a few years from now, male bosses will be mortally afraid of junior women colleagues and the work culture will be vitiated because of this lopsided law.”

The SIFF would send mails to members of parliament, urging them to disapprove the bill, because even incompetent or boorish woman employee would have to be tolerated for fear of the law, which would be loaded against men if the bill was passed, Dhulia added.

Vivek Deveshwar, councillor of SIFF, opined that the bill was ill-conceived as the the law should always aim at achieving parity, not imbalance.

The foundation has sent over 1,500 letters to the law ministry and prime minister’s office, highlighting the biased nature and the constitutionality of the bill.
The SIFF has asked people to mail their protests to Nasscom, the premier trade body of IT and ITeS companies.

“It is the case of the SIFF that more male workers get harassed, not necessarily at the hands of women employees, and their plight goes unrecorded because men would rather hide their ignominy than making it public. Any law should hold both sexes equal, not unequal,” the foundation said.

But Vimochana, a premier organisation working for women’s uplift, has a different version.
Donna Fernandes of Vimochana, said her organisation had never pitched for a law to protect women from sexual harassment at workplace. Rather, she would like the government to implement the Supreme Court guidelines issued 13 years ago.

The guidelines put the onus of giving a safe workplace to women on the employer. “Any sexual harassment is discrimination and it ought not be allowed.” Since the government had not bothered to execute it in its right spirit, a law is called for. The protesters’ fear is ill-founded. The fact remains that most victims of sexual harassment at workplace are women. They more often do not report it for fear of ostracism and loss of career. Vimochana is in the panel of many organisations and we know majority of women who suffered sexual harassment would not go public,” Fernandes added.