First, the bill defines harassment as: "any unwelcome sexual advance, request for sexual favors or other verbal and written communication or physical conduct of a sexual nature or sexually demeaning attitudes, causing interference with the work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment, or the attempt to punish the complainant for refusal to comply to such a request or is made condition for employment."
If an individual's crime of harassment is proved, he can be handed a minor penalty or a major penalty, depending on the nature of the harassment. The bill mentioned a range of minor penalties, some of which include censure, withholding of increment/promotion. Some of the major penalties include demotion to a lower post, compulsory retirement, removal/dismissal from service and fine.
Who will award these penalties and how? If a complaint of harassment is made, the organization concerned will have to form an inquiry commission, which will hear the version of both the parties and submit their findings within 30 days. The committee will have to have three members, including a woman. The committee's recommendations will be submitted to the relevant authority, which will then hand the penalties.
How is the government planning to implement this bill? What concrete, practical measures have been put in place to ensure that punishments are indeed handed out to the perpetrators of harassment?
There are two major problems. The victims of harassment are almost always unwilling to come forward and report that they are being harassed. Reporting any crime means unwanted publicity and most of the people, especially working women, prefer to suffer in silence, rather than take on the "big wigs" of their organization.
The second problem is more sinister - quite often, the perpetrator does not see him/herself as someone who is doing anything wrong. This mindset dominating to an alarmingly high extent and there is very little one can do on an individual level to change that.
The law must clearly define the actions which constitute harassment, so as to ensure that the law is not abused, and the perpetrators realize that what they are doing is a crime, and they would have to be accountable for it. The law would also have to assure some sort of anonymity and protection for the woman who comes forward to report the crime.
Secondly, a mass awareness campaign is needed involving public service messages, advertisements, drama serials, etc. to ensure that the message goes across to all levels of the public. It is not enough to simply pass a bill and sit back.
Workplace harassment is definitely something that needs to be dealt with. The bill sounds like a venture in the right direction. One can definitely recommend the other South Asian nations to take a leaf out of our book and implement similar laws in their countries. While Pakistan is the first country which has taken specific steps to deal with workplace harassment and has declared it as a crime, more is needed to ensure that the bill is implemented in letter and spirit.