I lost my job because I protested

That is just one of many refrains heard from victims of sexual harassment at work. For most, the struggle for dignity is a bitter, everyday fight. Labonita Ghosh reports

I had to bear it for years 
Supriya Talpade's past recently caught up with her. In April, the senior school teacher was suspended from her job at a Bhandup school for a sexual harassment case she had filed in 1991. The principal of her school used to proposition and threaten her by turns, when she decided to report him to both the state's education department and the women's commission. "He kept trying to make me stay back late in school with him," she says.

"If I had a problem, he would insist I first please him before he looked into the matter. When he spoke to me, it was always with innuendo and obscene gestures. At a school picnic once he looked pointedly at me and said, 'I don't like home-cooked food all the time. Sometimes I like to eat out as well'."

When Talpade complained to the management, they sided with the principal and forced her to resign. That was when she approached authorities outside and was reinstated. "I have been teaching there ever since," she says.

 "If I didn't have to support my husband and two children, I'd have quit long ago." Earlier this year, after almost a decade of uneasy calm in the matter, and allegedly without warning, the school served Talpade a suspension notice. "It's a double whammy," she says, bitterly. "I was harassed and lost my job as well. All because I thought I was doing the right thing." I'm a pariah in office

Mita Nagpal's harasser is dead, but her troubles continue. She goes to work every day, but has nothing to do. Ever since she complained, in 2005, that a senior was sexually harassing her, this employee of a semi-government concern has been shunted from one department to another, with only odd jobs to do. Shortly after Nagpal started working, the senior started passing sexual remarks about her. Since she was in another department, Nagpal ignored him for a while.

Then one evening, after an office party, he insisted she go out for dinner with him. When she refused, the man tried to molest her in his office cabin. Nagpal managed to free herself, and later confided in a few friends at work. When the matter came up before an in-house inquiry committee, however, her friends refused to testify, fearing for their jobs. The case fell through for lack of evidence, and Nagpal's shunting began.

Just before the committee gave its final verdict, the accused died of a heart attack. "Now the committee says there is no point pursuing the case, since the accused is no more," says Nagpal, 32.

"But they have not said anything about compensation for all that I have endured. The man may be dead, but there appears to be no end to my problems. I am still treated like a pariah in the office."

I'm branded bad news
A Holi celebration changed mediaperson Rashmi Khandekar's life. A few years ago, when a junior colleague in Khandekar's office tried to act fresh and touch her under the ruse of applying colours, she slapped him.

Some days later, Khandekar was pulled up by her bosses; they insisted she withdraw the police complaint she filed against the junior because it would ruin the company's reputation.

When she refused, the management allegedly sacked her, says an activist who worked closely with Khandekar to seek redress.

"Rashmi was branded a troublemaker," says the activist, "and this has become her reputation. It's been four years since she lost her job, but still hasn't got a new one." One or two prospective employers even told her to her face that they didn't want a troublemaker in their midst. Khandekar's turned into free game: Even after losing her job, she gets lewd, anonymous calls. "Now it's become a question of survival," says the 28-year-old. The case is currently pending with the Labour court.

It was a power game
Flight attendant Urmila Vashisht finds herself grounded because of sexual harassment.

The 40-year-old was refused a fitness certificate by a man she accused of harassing her, and is desperately trying to get her job back. Last year, during a routine fitness test which required an emergency simulation in a swimming pool, Vashisht got into a scrap with the instructor.

He shouted at her, then passed remarks about her bathing suit-clad body.

"It was more emotional than sexual," the flight attendant said. "It was a twisted power game in which this man tried his best to humiliate me."

When Vashisht protested, he refused to sign her fitness certificate. She, in turn, registered a case with the cops.

Vashisht brought up the matter with seniors, and they allowed her to take the test again, but she claims they failed her once more.

"Other girls also complained about the instructor, but no action was taken. In fact, the others also lost their jobs," she says. "It's very clear when we complain about a wrongdoing, we are ones who are victimised."

All names changed on request