HYDERABAD: Journalist Priya Ramani's acquittal by a Delhi court on Wednesday in a defamation case filed by former Union Minister MJ Akbar, whom she had accused of sexual misconduct in 2018, has once again brought the issue of workplace harassment to the forefront.
Delivering the judgment, Justice Ravindra Kumar Pandey said that the court had taken "the systemic abuse in the workplace" into consideration while arriving at the verdict.
Speaking to The New Indian Express, National Women's Commission member representing Telangana, Dr Rajulben Desai, said, "It is an open secret that sexual harassment at workplace is widespread in both organised and unorganised sectors. In Hyderabad, which has a massive IT cluster, several women face harassment regularly. But it does not get reported for multiple reasons."
As of 2020, Hyderabad has 6,00,000 employees in the IT/ITES sector, working in more than 1,500 companies. "As per the Vishaka guidelines, every organisation with more than 10 employees should have an Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) to take up workplace harassment cases," she said.
"Every month, ICC panels should take up awareness campaigns to educate women on workplace harassment and their right to ask for 30-day paid leaves, in addition to counselling sessions and other provisions. In most cases, women do not even know about any of it," she added.
Victims discouraged
IT companies are supposed to send a report to the Local Complaints Committee (LCC) related to workplace harassment cases annually. Stating that the situation is grave in the IT sector, Jameela Nishat, a member of the Hyderabad LCC, said, "As per guidelines, all tech companies are supposed to send us annual reports. But not even 5 per cent of these companies do that. When we invite their representatives for training sessions, we do not get a response."
"Most women in these big IT companies also do not know about Vishaka guidelines. In places where there are ICCs, women employees are dissuaded from filing complaints. We are soon going to have a meeting with IT Secretary Jayesh Ranjan to urge him to look into the matter and make IT companies more gender-sensitive," she added.
Online sexual harassment
The post-COVID shift of workplaces from offline to online modes has not really changed things. "During the lockdown, we did not receive many complaints, as most offices were shut. Only women from government banks and offices came forward to complain about workplace harassment, as many of them still had to go to work," added Jameela.
Though it can be assumed that the pandemic has helped stop workplace harassment to an extent, the reality is far from it. "Workplace harassment has not stopped, but has only moved online," said Desai.