Courting equality

"Mother India has always been unkind to her daughters, and I wonder why these unfortunate beings continue to be born in this country." It is a distressing comment on independent India’s chequered progress that social reformer Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar’s words ring as true today as they did in the 19th century. It is thus heartening that the Supreme Court has stressed the definite link between sexual harassment in the workplace and violation of a citizen’s constitutional right to equality, life and liberty. While this is simply a reiteration of the 1997 judgment in the Vishaka vs State of Rajasthan case, by enlarging the definition of sexual harassment and rescuing a debate mired in political opportunism and post-feminist jargon, the apex court has made redressal for what is routinely dismissed as an innocuous white collar crime or an attempt at character assassination less of a distant dream. Upholding the 1989 dismissal of an employee after "due inquiry", the court has ruled that physical contact is not apre-requisite for a worker to charge a colleague with sexual harassment. Any verbal or physical conduct with sexual overtones "particularly when submission to or rejection of such a conduct is capable of… affecting the employment of the female employee and unreasonably interfering with her work performance" has been deemed sexual harassment. Hence, by removing molestation as the cornerstone of a harassment case, the court has finally accorded legitimacy to feminists’ contention that, given the destructive power of innuendo in Indian society, the actual battleground is a grey, psychological area. While pessimists would no doubt be justified in arguing that hyped judgments are no remedy against the social stigma and disdainful law enforcement machinery on the long, winding path to justice, there is also no gainsaying that resultant awareness and debate can be critical catalysts in effecting social and attitudinal changes and deterring potential offenders.

However, harassment by fellow workers is just oneobstacle to the right to equality in the workplace. Indeed, the vast majority of Indian women are engaged in the unorganised sector where sexual harassment is routine and workers’ rights a mere chimera. As for the lucky beneficiaries of modern education, they inevitably fall victim to systemic barriers to female ambition in the form of social prejudice and wage distortions. Researchers have exhaustively documented how every time women enter a profession in large numbers — typing, teaching and nursing are old examples of segregated labour markets, software may follow suit — it is automatically devalued both in prestige and salary. Even for the same work, women take home just a percentage of their male counterparts’ pay packet. And, of course, there is the proverbial glass ceiling evident in the sparse sprinkling of pallus and scarves in boardrooms and annual general body meets. It is these discrepancies that have to be addressed if the constitutional right to gender equality is to berealised.