6 months ago
2
A lawsuit successful Chandigarh, wherever a assemblage prof was sacked aft a probe by the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) nether the Sexual Harassment of Women astatine Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 (or the POSH Act) marks a uncommon but important precedent. The students’ complaint, filed connected September 12, 2024, was investigated, and the allegations of intersexual harassment were proven.
While this result is being hailed arsenic “justice served”, it besides exposes the debased condemnation complaint nether the POSH Act and the gaps that forestall it from delivering justness with consistency and empathy, particularly successful acquisition institutions wherever young women and men look unequal powerfulness dynamics. This writer has seen the recurring gaps and on-ground challenges that dilute the intent of the instrumentality aft having witnessed respective cases of intersexual harassment successful universities and colleges.
The flawed thought of consent
The Act, though well-intentioned, suffers from conceptual and procedural flaws. It talks astir “consent” but not “informed consent”. That favoritism is crucial. Consent loses its meaning erstwhile obtained done manipulation oregon incomplete knowledge. Within workplace and world settings, relationships whitethorn initially look consensual, but erstwhile affectional manipulation oregon powerfulness imbalance surfaces later, the earlier consent becomes invalid. What a pistillate experiences past is not lone harassment but besides betrayal.
Yet, the instrumentality does not relationship for specified informed consent, ignoring however educated perpetrators exploit trust, authorization and accusation asymmetry.
Emotional harassment that stems from deceitful oregon manipulative relationships besides remains extracurricular the Act’s ambit. When consent is obtained done fraud oregon affectional coercion, it should beryllium treated arsenic harassment. Many educated accused recognize what leaves grounds and what does not, shaping their behaviour to stay successful the grey portion of legality. The law, inactive bound to disposable oregon explicit acts, fails to code this subtle, intelligence signifier of exploitation.
One of the astir pressing flaws is the regulation play of 3 months for filing complaints. For a pistillate who has survived manipulation oregon coercion, recognising what happened and gathering courageousness to study it often takes overmuch longer. In universities, wherever students walk respective years nether the aforesaid organization roof, realisation and grounds whitethorn look overmuch later. Justice should not travel with an expiry date. The three-month regularisation lone strengthens the assurance of perpetrators that their acts volition slice with time.
Equally troubling is the terminology. The accused is called a “respondent”, and not an “accused.” This tiny linguistic alteration dilutes the seriousness of the offence. Outside the workplace, the aforesaid behaviour would represent a crime. Why should the discourse of a assemblage oregon bureau marque it look little grave? Language matters. By softening the label, the instrumentality normalises a usurpation that causes heavy intelligence trauma.
Vague definitions wrong the Act further displacement the load of impervious onto the woman. She indispensable beryllium harassment wrong an organization operation that is often hesitant, ill-equipped, and risk-averse. In astir genuine cases, harassment is not a azygous enactment but a behavioural pattern. Yet, committees thin to disregard complaints for deficiency of nonstop evidence. There should beryllium ways to measure behavioural behaviour done anonymous feedback oregon corroborative testimony. Since the accused already enjoys extortion done a multi-member committee to guarantee impartiality, the aforesaid religion indispensable widen to the committee’s quality to recognise circumstantial evidence. Reading betwixt the lines and acknowledging informal networks should beryllium portion of the process.
No clarity connected inter-institutional complaints
The Act is besides soundless connected inter-institutional complaints. In academia, visiting faculty, probe collaborations and conferences make aggregate spaces for enactment crossed institutions. When an accused person’s misconduct spans antithetic campuses, determination is nary mechanics to link oregon prosecute those cases jointly. This lack allows repetition offenders to spell unchecked.
For a woman, lodging a ailment is itself a conflict fought aft an aggravated interior struggle. What follows, however, often turns into different ordeal. Instead of relief, she faces procedural delays, organization hesitation, and affectional fatigue.
The instrumentality besides permits disciplinary enactment against complainants recovered to person filed “malicious” complaints, which, though meant arsenic a safeguard, ends up intimidating genuine victims. The process, meant to present justice, often retraumatises them.
The integer grounds dilemma
With exertion reshaping communication, harassment excessively has evolved. Messages tin vanish, photographs look lone once, and chats are encrypted. Expecting Internal Complaint Committee (ICC) members — often without ineligible oregon method grooming — to construe specified grounds is unrealistic. The instrumentality has not adapted to this integer reality. It indispensable see updated definitions, wide protocols for handling integer evidence, and mandatory grooming for committee members to guarantee that exertion does not go a shield for offenders.
Women person agelong relied connected informal networks to pass each different astir unsafe individuals. These susurration systems beryllium precisely due to the fact that the ceremonial mechanisms often failed them. The POSH Act was a milestone erstwhile enacted successful 2013, but a decennary later, needs strengthening. It indispensable incorporated clearer language, longer timelines, designation of affectional and integer abuse, and stronger investigative tools. Justice should not beryllium connected the victim’s endurance oregon connected the committee’s discretion. It indispensable beryllium built into the operation of the instrumentality itself. Until that happens, the extortion promised by the POSH Act volition stay much symbolic than real.
Mahima Duggal is simply a probe scholar, Department of Political Science, Panjab University, Chandigarh
