Talk by Anita Abraham on The legal aspects of gender in the workplace

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For those interested...

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Amitabha Bagchi <bag...@cse.iitd.ernet.in>
Date: Wed, Apr 3, 2013 at 4:19 PM
Subject: CSR310: Talk by Anita Abraham, April 6, 10AM
To: csr...@courses.iitd.ernet.in
Cc: Anshul Kumar <ans...@cse.iitd.ernet.in>, Vinay Joseph Ribeiro <vi...@cse.iitd.ernet.in>, Subodh Kumar <sub...@cse.iitd.ernet.in>


The legal aspects of gender in the workplace

by Anita Abraham
April 6, Saturday, 10AM

The necessity of mechanisms for the prevention and redressal of sexual
harassment of women in workplaces was first made mandatory by the Supreme
Court in the judgement of Vishaka v. State of Rajasthan in 1997. The Supreme
Court pointing out the fact that there was a lacuna in legislation against
sexual harassment of women in the workplace,  passed guidelines for setting
up sexual harassment complaints mechanisms till the enactment of legislation
by the Parliament. Based on the guidelines passed in Vishaka several
Universities and employment agencies set up sexual harassment complaints
committees. Thereafter, in September 2012, the Lok Sabha, passed the
proposed Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition,
Redressal) Bill, 2012 which has been widely critiqued as having a narrow
approach and a poor understanding of the manner in which sexual harassment
complaints must be addressed and dealt with.

    In this regard, I will briefly explain the following with reference to
the Vishaka guidelines and the proposed SH Bill, 2012:

(a)  The definition of sexual harassment at the workplace.          
(b) The Constitution of Complaints Committees and procedures which are
required to be followed by the Complaints Committees which includes
preventive steps, criminal proceedings and disciplinary actions.
(c) The manner in which the Vishaka guidelines has been followed so far by
the public sector and private sector with examples of complaints committees
in both sectors.
(d) The successes and strengths of the JNU Sexual Harassment policy and the
DU Sexual Harassment Policy in order to have an understanding of best
practices.
(e) What to expect and what can be proposed by bright, young IIT graduates
who get jobs in companies and organizations, both of the public sector and
private sector, including international agencies.