STATISTICAL ANALYSIS ON SEXUAL HARASSMENT OF WOMEN AT
WORKPLACE(CHAPTER-6)
Written by - Shalini bishi
introduction
Our Indian scenario truly delineates a silent society that is in the desperate urge to unfold the
hidden realities to the unknown. Today’s milieu is composed of millions of stories in the mind of
people with smiling faces. Irrespective of the fact, be it a male, female or transgender even a
child or a senior citizen, have been a victim of sexual harassment. Some of the real stories
include a female housekeeping being offered a note of 10 rupees in place of the house owner
forcing himself on her while her working hours. Mental pressure and fear of losing the job had
stopped her from disclosing this incident to his wife.
Often penury situations along with insecurities like fear, low esteem, etc. pressurise people to not
raise their voice and stand up for themselves. Whereas, on the other side of the story, even a
male becomes the victim.
Arise in the number of sexual harassment cases in India’s top companies indicated the urgency
for many organisations to address culture and conduct issues in creating a safer workplace
environment. As workforce sentiment is changing dynamics following Covid, the increase of
sexual harassment cases raises concerns about safety of employees as many offices have
gradually opened up. Nearly a decade after the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace
(Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act was passed in 2013, sexual harassment cases
continue to threaten women’s safety and dignity.
The total number of sexual harassment complaints at workplaces climbed by 27 percent in the
financial year ending March 2022 compared to the previous year, according to data analysis
compiled by anti-sexual harassment advisory Complykaro.com based on company annual
reports. The analysis has considered only companies in the BSE 100 index which account for
over 65 percent of total market capitalisation of listed firms in India.
The Statistics
Credible national surveys indicate workplace sexual harassment remains unusually pronounced
in India. A 2018 study by Martha Farrell Foundation found 80% of Indian women have faced
harassment at work, with 38% experiencing it in the last year.
A 2020 survey of professional women found similar rates, with 75% reporting workplace sexual
harassment during their career and 57% in the prior 12 months. While underreporting is likely,
these studies confirm harassment remains widely prevalent across Indian workplaces and sectors.
Younger women are especially vulnerable, with nearly 70% of college students reporting
experiencing harassment from colleagues. Overall, aggregate self-reported data suggests India
continues to have unusually high levels of normalized sexual misconduct in work settings.
Of the 527 people queried across seven cities – Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata,
Mumbai, and Pune – 19 % said they have faced some kind of sexual harassment at the office.
In Bangalore, 51% of the respondents had been sexually harassed, while in Delhi and
Hyderabad, 31% and 28% of those surveyed said they had been sexually harassed. Around 38%
of the respondents across 7 cities in India said that in today’s workplaces, “men are as vulnerable
to sexual harassment as women.” Therefore these surveys also support the fact that like women,
men too need laws favoring them.
Vishaka Guidelines came into action, for the protection of women in their workplace, after the
case of Vishaka and Ors vs. the State of Rajasthan, when the petition was filed under public
interest litigation on the grounds of violating fundamental rights.
Unlike these, it would be wiser if in advance the laws were to be framed to deals with the cases
which mostly get injustice due to lack of laws and implementation favoring the contempt for
men and transgender.
CITIES PERCENTAGE OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT
Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, 19 %
Kolkata , Mumbai, and Pune
Bangalore, 51%
Delhi 31%
Hyderabad 28%
Data showed that these companies registered 759 cases in FY22 compared to 595 reported in
FY21. The number of cases has not surpassed pre-Covid levels. In FY20, these companies
reported an aggregate of 999 sexual harassment cases amid the MeToo movement gaining
momentum, leading to employee activism in India. Typically, in such waves, employees feel
empowered and confident to break their silence when it comes to reporting misconduct issues at
the workplace.
YEAR NUMBER OF CASES
2022 759
2021 595
2020 999
Number of cases in different companies
Among all the companies under review, HDFC Bank with 51 cases received the maximum
complaints in FY22, but those are just 8 percent higher than last year. Next are ICICI Bank (46),
Axis Bank (45) and Tech Mahindra (45). Tech Mahindra showed the maximum increase in the
number of complaints compared to 30 in the previous year.Another company which showed a big jump in the number of cases is InterGlobe Aviation,which operates airline company IndiGo. It reported 29 cases in FY22 compared to 15 in theprevious year; the number was 36 in FY20. “The reported rise in the number of cases in FY22does not reflect the true picture, as our operations were significantly curtailed in FY21 due to thepandemic. The number of cases reported in FY22 are similar to those reported in FY20, whichreflects the pre-Covid scenario,” says a spokesperson representing the airline.He says the airline company has zero tolerance towards any acts of sexual harassment and has a
robust prevention of sexual harassment policy. It has set up an internal committee comprising
over 150 dedicated employees who are focussed on ensuring a safe working environment. “In
addition, we have set up an independent reporting channel for complainants. These awareness
initiatives have instilled faith in the minds of employees that they can report matters of sexual
harassment at workplace without any fear, and that, no concern will go unnoticed or
unaddressed,” the spokesperson adds.Infosys showed the maximum decline in the number of complaints—11 in FY22 from 16 in theprevious year. The IT major has continued the reduction trend even post lockdown, resulting in81.66 percent fall from pre-Covid levels, according to the data analysis. Email queries sent to a few companies mentioned in the story remained unanswered till the time of filing the story.
COMPANY YEAR NUMBER OF CASES
INDIGO 2022 29
2021 15
2020 36
INFOSYS 2022 11
2021 16
PENDING CASES
The Annual Review of the State of Sexual Harassment in India, a report by the Women’s Indian
Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Council of Ethics, said that most women who faced
sexual harassment decided against reporting the incident to appropriate authorities. The report released in May said that over 50 percent of respondents experienced sexual harassment at least
once at the workplace. Of the people who faced such incidents, 55.2 percent decided not to file a
complaint.The informal sector, which includes street vendors, rag pickers, domestic workers, those
working from home, contractual workers and self-employed people, complained of various
sexual harassment incidents such as receiving sexually suggestive remarks about appearance,
clothing or body parts; sexual questions; demands or request for sexual favours; lewd jokes or
sexual anecdotes, offensive comments about sexual orientation or gender identity.
SEXUAL HARASSMENT AT WORK PLACE IN DIFFERENT STATE
Cases of sexual harassment at the workplace have gone up year by year since the the Protection
of Women from Sexual Harassment at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act,
2013 came into effect. Under the category “insult to the modesty of women at office premises”,
57, 119, and 142 cases were registered in 2014, 2015 and 2016 respectively, Women and Child
Development Minister Smriti Irani said last week in reply to a question in Lok Sabha. These
figures are from the National Crime Records Bureau, and 2016 is the latest year for which data
are available.State by state, the data showed huge variations. Of the 142 cases in 2016, Bihar alone accounted
for more than half, with 73 cases. This was after no cases had been filed in that state in the
previous two years. In a number of states, no case has been filed in any of the three years.
In 2015, a large proportion of the 119 cases was registered in just three states — Delhi (36),
Telangana (32) and Maharashtra (27), whose respective counts dropped to 9, 8 and 11 in 2016.
Delhi and Maharashtra had the highest counts in 2014, with 11 and 10 cases respectively.
Reasons along with statistic
In a survey of 2016, 504 women were included in the polling procedure, from which the results
turned out as four out of five women face sexual assault in public places like staring, insult,
wolf-whistling, etc.
A survey of 2011 noted that 50% of the sexual harassment occurs in public buses while
traveling. To this, the question lies: why do women not complain about harassment?
A study of 2020 held that many people are not aware of the various types of harassment. It was
found that 38.1% of the victims and 42.2% of the offenders are aware of the laws relating to
sexual assaults. In the words of Kaushik Gupta, Calcutta High Court, advocate “Often men do
not even realize what is a violation. For women, it has been so naturalized in their systems that if
a man is touching her inappropriately in a bus or a public place, she may normally try to move
away a bit without raising her voice. At times, there are cases of abuse where the woman has not
understood that she has been violated. One of the principal reasons is that as a society, we have
very little or almost no understanding of informed, enthusiastic consent.”
The other factors of this can be loopholes in our legal system. In cases of rape, the victim is the
one who faces the utmost humiliation. Firstly, he or she faces the assault, and after that during
the medical examination or FIR, it is that person again, who is made to feel uneasy and has to
give answers for all the questions revolving around the details of the horrifying incident. Also
when such an incident takes place, one suffers from trauma, so that it is not comfortable for the
victim to approach the police station again and again, above that their truth gets challenged
constantly by the laws. It may also take place that adjournments get delayed due to legal
loopholes.
Impact on society
There are specifically two major consequences of harassment, one can be out of fear and
rebelling and the other can be depression and suppressing of emotions. In both the consequences,
the suffering of the victims is common. It depends on the person who is dealing with it. As
women are always taught to be under the veil especially in rural areas and not to raise their
voices, and the tough reality of poverty makes them stick to the situations of uneasiness for the sake of pleasing the society, in fact in all situations, it is the victim who suffers. In cases of men,
they are treated as hard and tough so for them raising their voice in this regard questions their
manhood. In the cases of transgender, society does not pay attention to them and often violates
their dignity.
CONCLISION
Thinking of workplace sexual harassment, it becomes miserable for the women being vulnerable,
it becomes difficult for the concerned female to tackle the situation. Here the person’s mind gets
confused on various grounds, such as career, job, money, financial freedom, family, children,
society, etc. And once a mark gets splashed upon a lady, in reality, society tends to treat that
person as if she has done something wrong. In many cases, women often get offers to perform
sexual favors in return for promotions or can be threatened that they might lose their job as well.
Sometimes the employee gets so traumatized that she even starts to become dysfunctional
mentally and physically which consequently leads her to perform improperly in the workplace.
But some fighters do exist in our society. Some females do fight back. After facing numerous
sexual harassment the fear of society’s judgment gets diminished, instead, these acts install
aggression and courage to fight back and teach the accused a lesson. After So much tolerance
one feels like there is nothing to lose anymore and in reality, this attitude makes women bold and
strong, unfortunately.
.jpeg)
.png)
.jpeg)
){kind=link}