Harassment can cost you a job

Women may soon have law on their side when it comes to sexual harassment in the workplace. In fact, the proposed law intends to cover the rights of women even in places like hospitals, prisons, courts, parliament and assemblies.

For those who indulge in it, especially government servants, it could mean curtailment of service, a red mark in the career record and even imprisonment.

In a new initiative of the human resource development ministry’s department for women and child development, the national commission for women (NCW) has now been asked to draft a bill for protecting the rights of the working women.

This comes in the wake of the ministry’s decision to reject a draft of the law prepared by Lawyers’ Collective Women Rights Initiative. “Though the bill drafted by lawyers’ initiative was a comprehensive document, we found that it didn’t speak on the punishment and a definite time frame to settle a complaint of sexual harassment. So, we decided to entrust the job to NCW,” said a ministry official.

The government wants both rights of a woman and what tantamount to sexual harassment to be clearly defined under law. It also wants to lay down what action is to be taken against an employer for not constituting a sexual harassment complaint committee and for timely hearing of a case. NCW, on its part, will be holding discussions with different women bodies to reach a consensus.