NEW DELHI: The number of cases of sexual harassment at workplaces shot up by almost 4,000 per cent across the country in the last four years, government data has revealed. The figures, accessed by TNIE, show that while 371 cases were reported in 2014, the number shot up to 14,866 in 2018 (till October) — a rise of over 3,907 per cent. Just like in previous years, Uttar Pradesh reported the most cases, followed by Delhi and Haryana.
Till 2017, only a few women complained of sexual harassment at work, with just 570 choosing to make their grievances official last year.
“The dramatic rise in numbers of such cases this year could probably be explained by the government’s, and particularly Women and Child Development (WCD) Minister Maneka Gandhi’s, concerted efforts to raise awareness about the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013,” said National Commission for Women chairperson Rekha Sharma.
A senior WCD ministry official said many women who are not satisfied by the Internal Complaints Committee reports at their companies find it easy to report their grievances through the Sexual Harassment Electronic (SHE) box -with a dedicated e-mail ID created for the purpose.
“The fact that the Corporate Affairs Ministry has now made companies reveal Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) reports through annual reports has also empowered women in a big way and they are coming out to fight exploitation,” the WCD ministry official said.
The data interestingly also shows that states known for skewed sex ratio and several other crimes against women are also ones where maximum number of women face harassment at workplace while North-eastern states, known for comparative gender equality, fare much better.
For instances, a very high number of cases pertaining to sexual harassment at workplace came to light from Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar after the top three states (Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Haryana, respectively). Among the southern states, Karnataka was the worst with 205 cases, followed closely by Tamil Nadu.
India has been witnessing its own #MeToo movement for the last two weeks, a year after it swept through the US. A number of women, mainly in entertainment, film and media industries, have called out alleged predators while sharing their ordeals of harassment by bosses or male colleagues.
Actress Tanushree Dutta was the first to allege harassment by veteran Bollywood and Marathi actor Nana Patekar on the sets of a movie in 2008. Dutta has now filed a fresh complaint with the police naming Patekar.
Last week, M J Akbar, MoS, External Affairs, was forced to resign after about 20 women journalists narrated their accounts of being harssed or molested by him.