Sexual Harassment at the Workplace Act: Providing Redress or Maintaining Status Quo?. (June 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Gupta, Pallavi; Fatima, Nikhat; Kandikuppa, Sandeep
• Is Part Of: Social change. Volume 51:Number 2(2021)
• Page Start: 246
• Page End: 257
• Publication Date: 2021-06
• Subjects: Sexual harassment -- workplace -- India -- legal redress; Social change -- Periodicals; India -- Social conditions -- Periodicals; 303.405
• DOI: 10.1177/0049085720957753
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0049-0857

Abstract

Despite a law against sexual harassment of women at the workplace, persons holding high offices, including senior judges, seem to enjoy impunity. By critically examining the allegations made against Justice Ranjan Gogoi (retd), former Chief Justice of India, and analysing five other cases of sexual harassment, we highlight how women are routinely denied justice. In doing so, we ask: are women actually able to file complaints of sexual harassment without the fear of facing a backlash? And do they ultimately get justice when they do so? We argue that the implementation of the law against sexual harassment is mediated by caste, class and gender, both of the survivor and of the perpetrator. We point to a changing polity that makes laws, guarantees and protections for women, but stumbles in implementing them in a fair and non-arbitrary manner.