New Delhi, November 4
Thirteen years after the Supreme Court delivered the Vishakha judgment detailing guidelines for the protection of women at workplaces, the Union Cabinet today approved the Protection of Women Against Sexual Harassment at Workplace Bill 2010 for introduction in the Parliament’s forthcoming session.

The Bill will by law make “safety” the responsibility of the employer and mandate that employers set up internal complaint committees to provide redressal to aggrieved women and transfer them or grant them leave pending the inquiry into a complaint. Contravention of the provision would invite a fine of Rs 50,000 and twice the punishment with each subsequent offence of a similar nature. The employer may even lose his licence/registration.

The draft law is significant as it makes SC directives on workplace safety legally binding for the first time since the court following Bhanwari Devi’s gang-rape in Rajasthan (a saathin who opposed child marriage in her village) laid down safety guidelines for working women.

The Bill prohibits sexual harassment in public, private, organised and unorganised sectors and defines sexual harassment as required by the SC. Sexual harassment means such unwelcome sexually determined behaviour (whether directly or by implication) as physical contact and advances, demand or request for sexual favours, sexually coloured remarks or showing pornography or any other unwelcome physical; verbal or non-verbal conduct of sexual nature.

Everyone -- women clients, customers, apprentices, daily wagers, college student, hospital patients, ad-hoc or otherwise -- will be covered. For redressal, the Bill mandates employers to set up internal complaints committees. Since India has 41.2 million establishments (with less than 10 workers) as per Economic Census 2005, the law allows local complaints committee to be constituted by district officer at district or sub-district levels. A woman can complain to any committee.

Employers’ duties would include -- ensuring safety; displaying at a conspicuous place the order constituting the internal committee, assisting the woman if she files a complaint under IPC, initiating action under IPC against the perpetrator after the conclusion of the inquiry or without waiting for the enquiry where the perpetrator is not an employee where the sexual harassment took place.

The committee must submit its report in 90 days and employers or district officers must act on its recommendations in 60 days.