Abstract

The dynamics of the Indian economy have evolved over time to witness participation by a considerably larger number of women in the working sector. With a change in the economic status of women, the impediment of sexual harassment at workplaces has also assumed many facets. Today, sexual harassment is an epidemic which has spread across formal and informal sectors of the economy and it impacts individuals, groups and entire organizations in profound ways. This paper aims to explore how sexual harassment at workplaces is a form of gender inequality that has created a latent barrier, predominantly for females which not only violates their basic human rights but also results in negatively affecting the working-class public spheres, at large. In India, after a few appalling cases came to light, the first ever legislative safeguard against workplace sexual harassment was afforded to women in 2013 when the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act was enacted by the Ministry of Women and Child Development. This paper has attempted to not only trace the evolution of this law but also examine its key provisions and implementation so as to determine and understand how far we have come as a society in subsiding the impediment of sexual harassment at workplaces.

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