Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away, there existed a concept called ‘chivalry’. But try dropping that word in the modern day workplace where men and women are supposed to share a healthy professional relationship. And watch the eyebrows shoot up.
Agreed, chivalry doesn’t really have much of a place, given the present-day work environment (even the feminists frown upon it). But neither does the other extreme – the assumption that working women are easy prey and “perks that come with work”, in the words of Minister of State for Women and Child Development Renuka Choudhury.
Sexual harassment, activists have been crying, exists in BPOs, in schools and colleges, in Bollywood, in the corporate sector, in the uniformed forces, and just about everywhere, in one form or another. Which is why the National Commission for Women had drafted ‘The Sexual Harassment of Women at the Workplace (Prevention and Redressal) Bill, 2004′ and submitted it to the Department of Women and Child Development.
The Bill is slated to come up in this session of Parliament. If passed, it promises to utterly redefine the work environment. Any act with even remote sexual connotations – an SMS joke, a forwarded email, or a popup – could land a man in soup if a woman he shares a working relationship with perceives it as an intentional act aimed at harassing her. Predictably, it has thrown up several questions.
