HYDERABAD: Six years after the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 came into existence, an important section of working women continue to be devoid of its provisions -- those working for political parties.“Sexual harassment is common in rallies and we can’t be blind to it. The number of men coming in for campaigning is far larger than women and so instances can arrive. However, women are scared to come out. Firstly, there are no sexual harassment committees and even if such a complaint is taken up, women are bound to face character assassination,” added a senior Mahila Congress leader in the State.
While all major political parties have disciplinary committees, experts note that as per law, having an ICC is still mandatory. “Political party is a workplace nevertheless because under its provisions if more than 10 people work, it is a workplace,” noted Shruthi Joshi, a practicing advocate, “If parties have hired women for political work—as consultant or event managers or as social media consultants—those are automatically covered under the Act.”
It’s common. A Telangana Rashtra Samithi leader also accepted that sexual harassment was common among campaigners and often women were forced to ignore it. “However, women don’t approach police or seniors to complain about the same because they think why to make an issue out of it. If they make it an issue the family would know and could then curtail their free movement. Women are forced to ignore harassment to meet their goals,” added another TRS corporator.
“In BJP, women are treated as important at Bharat Mata and given the importance of a mother so there is no question of internal cadre harassing women,” BJP Mahila Morcha leader and party’s star campaigner, Aakula Vijaya told Express when asked why the saffron party was still without an Internal Complaints Committee, as mandated by the Act. “Even outside during campaigning, we have barely seen harassment and only got respect,” added Vijaya.
Not only the BJP, even the Congress and the ruling TRS, are devoid of an ICC till date. “Such issues don’t arise in our party because campaigning with women is often done in groups and everybody knows each other. We are like a family. In such a case, (issue of) sexual harassment barely ever arises,” noted a corporator of the TRS, who wished to remain anonymous.
One of the basic tenets of introducing an ICC was to encourage victims to speak out, even if they have remained silent so far. ICC becomes all the more urgent when there is a higher participation of women party workers at the grassroots level making them more susceptible to sexual harassment even more.
85% of women Candidates lost deposits in 2018
A common misconception remains that women shy away from politics. However, a statistical report of 2018 TS Assembly elections indicates that while women were intent on contesting, the public itself was not so welcoming. As many as 122 out of 137 women candidates in the fray—a staggering 89 per cent—failed to achieve a set percentage of votes and lost their deposits
250 women members work for BJP in each Parliamentary constituency. TRS has nearly 1,000 to 2,000 women in each ward
In the State Mahila Congress, women constitute 20 to 30 per cent of the work force apart from occupying 18 posts of office bearers