Workplace under the PoSH act during the pandemic: Have the boundaries changed
- The Indian Police Journal
- 68(3), Jul-Sep, 2021: p.145-151
Equality and non-discrimination are internationally recognized principles of ‘human rights protection’ embedded in the constitutions of many nations, including the Constitution of India, and are indispensable, in the workplace. The principles of equal opportunity, equal protection, and non-discrimination as basic human and labour rights are internationally recognised fundamentals for ‘social justice and sustainable development. The right to live with dignity is recognised therewith as a basic human right to be employed in a protected and conducive work environment. Women, who play an equally vital role in almost all fields, walk with their shoulders next to men, and put effort in every endeavour are facing issues of the brutal attack on dignity when sexually abused or harassed at the workplace. Sexual harassment in the workplace has become a tool for preventing women from achieving their worth. Amidst the pandemic when there was a lockdown imposed in several places, the workplace has moved to the safe environment of the home. It was expected that the issue of sexual harassment would be resolved, yet it hasn’t gone away and instead witnessed a notable increase in potential cases of online sexual harassment especially cyberbullying, cyberstalking, video calls, unwarranted messages, calls, in odd hours, etc. (Sharma, 2020). The number of registered cases of online sexual harassment with the NCW during the pandemic rose almost 5 times (Express News Service, 2021). During the lockdown, online media platforms were negatively exploited for the offensive and hostile communications with sexually coloured remarks towards women. In many incidents, an initial reporting was avoided, but the surge in such cases later flooded the news reporting. This initiated a debate to find whether work from home or online workplace also constitutes a workplace. With an argument that the workplace should be interpreted widely to include every place where women work for the organization, including cyberspace, the paper examines the applicability of “The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013” in the cases of sexual harassment occurring in cyberspace. The research paper conceptualizes cyber workplace, examines the existing laws and precedent with the available remedies therein; discusses the mechanism and the power of the internal complaint committee to deal with cases of cyber sexual harassment. – Reproduced
Workplace, PoSH act, Recognised, Equality, Recognised principal, Human rights, Constitution, Internationally, International labour organisation(ILO).