What defines "Sexual Harassment"?
Physical contact and advances
Subjecting another person to an unwelcome act of physical intimacy including grabbing ,brushing, touching, including sexual flirtations advances or propositions.
Unwelcome conduct of sexual nature
Behaviour which creates an environment that is intimidating,hostile,offensive,humiliating for women employee.
Making sexually colored remarks
Making any unwelcome remark with sexual connotations like sexually explicit,remarks,cracking jokes or using sentences with sexual connotations or making sexist remarks etc.
Showing pornography
Showing any sexually explicit visual material in the form of pictures / cartoons / pinups / calenders / screen-savers on computers / any offensive written or electronicmaterial / including / including pornographic.
A demand or request for sexual favors
Making an unwelcome demand or request whether directly or by implication for sexual favours and/or making it a condition of employment / payment of wages / increments / promotion / preferential treatment / threat to detrimental treatment in employment /threat to current or future employment status or similar act.
“With the recent issues revolving around sexual harassment all over the world be it the #MeToo that led to #TimesUp or be it the traumatizing harassment cases at the hands of Bollywood veterans, we all are acquainted with the issue.
The act was mainly enacted for 3 things.
Protection against
Prevention of
Remedy of complaints of Sexual Harassment at workplaces.
The topic of Sexual Harassment was shrouded in Silence until Vishaka Guidelines triggered a national consciousness on an issue that was not given its due importance for a long time.
There is an urgent need for organisations to think about this problem holistically & not just as isolated cases that happen within the organization.
Objective of having this act supremely is to protect the fundamental rights enshrined in our constitution: