BANGALORE: Not many corporates are setting up committees against sexual harassment despite Supreme Court passing guidelines in Vishakha case against sexual harassment at the workplace to ensure its prevention, Hemalatha Mahishi, a leading women’s rights advocate said on Sunday.
The Supreme Court guidelines on sexual harassment at workplace came in 1997. “A majority of women are ignorant of the judgment in the Vishakha case.
Most victims complain that even if there is a committee, the members blame women for provoking the accused,” Mahishi alleged.
According to the guidelines, the Complaints Committee should be headed by a woman and not less than half of its members should be women. Further, to prevent the possibility of any undue pressure or influence from senior levels, the guidelines provide that Complaints Committee should involve a third party, either from an NGO or others who are familiar with the issue.
However, referring to a recent case of a top MNC company in Bangalore, she said that the company did not constituted a committee, but asked the harassed woman employee to leave the organisation. “They violated the basic right and denied her of an opportunity to be heard,” she said.