Saket Sharan, Chanakya National Law University
ABSTRACT
The Sexual Harassment Laws are a much welcome sight in India. There had always been a need of such laws because sexual harassment violates a person’s fundamental rights to live a life of dignity and right to work. At present, the sexual harassment at workplace is dealt by The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 ("POSH Act") which is a women specific legislation intended to protect solely women from sexual harassment at workplace. The POSH act was enacted and enforced in 2013 as a consequence of the longstanding judgment of Vishaka case which had provided guidelines on how to combat Sexual harassment in workplaces that is until the time the legislature could come up with a proper legislation.
The POSH Act takes a narrow perspective in that it does not protect against or address workplace sexual harassment that may be experienced by genders other than females in India.
This paper examines India's response to gender-neutral laws and makes an effort to define workplace sexual harassment as a violation of human and constitutional rights, and evaluates and critiques the notion of gender specificity in Indian laws against sexual harassment, which feeds into a binary conception of gender and leads to blatant exclusion.
The object is to provide awareness that the existing laws regarding sexual harassment at workplace in India have to give space and provide inclusion to males and non-binary genders as well.
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