Women's own hell

Sexual harrassment at the workplace is on the increase in Kerala. A women's group has taken up this issue in protest against the fielding of candidates for the Assembly elections. LEELA MENON comments on the incidents that have led to the current protests.

KERALA'S pollscape is witnessing an unprecedented issue: the sexual harassment of women at the workplace, with special reference to the involvement of a former minister in it. A woman's organisation, Sthree Vedi, has taken up the issue as an election plank, to campaign against the Minister in his constituency. The issue has also provoked another victim to start an indefinite fast before Calicut University for its refusal to bring to book the accused, despite Government instructions.

God's Own Country is becoming women's own hell. Atrocities against women are on the ascent, with few women safe from harrassment. If the number of rapes in Kerala was just 197 in 1991, it was 541 in 2000. Recently, a 35-year-old woman in Kadinankulam in Thiruvananthapuram was gang-raped in front of her three adolescent sons. Sexual harassment at the work place is also registering an increase.

Yet the Government is lethargic in initiating steps to curb this menace. The Kerala government has not only blatantly violated the guidelines of the Visakha judgment of the Supreme Court - passed in 1997 in the Visakha versus State of Rajasthan sexual harassment case - by not setting up a committee to check sexual harassment in its own institutions as prescribed by the Court, but it has also filed a false affidavit that it had constituted such a complaints committee. This has prompted the Supreme Court to pull up the State government and issue a stay on the proceedings of the Justice Sasidharan Commission, set up by the Government to enquire into the sexual harassment complaint filed by Nalini Netto, IAS, against her department minister.

She filed a complaint on February 9, 2000, alleging that she was sexually harassed by the minister on December 21, 1999 in the Minister's chamber at the Legislative Assembly complex. An FIR was also registered with the museum police station. A preliminary enquiry was made by the Chief Secretary and the Law Secretary. Enquiries were also instituted by the Crime Branch, which found the Minister guilty under Section 173 of the Criminal Procedure Court (CrPC). The Minister had reportedly attempted to suppress the FIR initially and had claimed that Nalini had fabricated the charge in an attempt to escape transfer from the department. The Crime Branch has now issued a charge-sheet against him.

Yet the Government appears to have deliberately subverted the Visakha judgment by setting up the Justice Sasidharan Commission, which has no legal legitimacy as it amounts to conducting a parallel enquiry when a police enquiry is already on. This has been interpreted as an obvious attempt to hound Nalini Netto for having dared to complain against a minister. No male judge is supposed to enquire into a case of sexual harassment, yet sitting Judge, Justice Sasidharan, was appointed. This commission had consistently victimised Nalini, insisting on holding a public trial, though in camera hearing is mandatory under the Visakha judgment. Even the instructions of the Vanitha Commission that a public trial should not be held was ignored by the commission. The State Women's Commission, in its full sitting, also recommended scrapping of the Sasidharan Commission on the grounds that what it sought to discover had already been disclosed through police investigation.

That Nalini dared to complain was seen as a healthy precedent by women who were facing identical situations in the workplace. But the humiliation inflicted on her in the aftermath of her complaint, with the then Chief Justice even comparing her case with that of Monica Lewinsky, asking if Monica could face a public trial why could not Nalini, have been demoralising in the extreme for women.

Kerala is an anomaly to the common belief that empowerment offers a natural shield to women. Nalini Netto is a senior IAS officer but she was sexually harassed by the minister during office hours. The same minister is also accused of harassing a woman IFS officer, Prakriti Srivastava, currently posted in Nilambur. This was prior to the assault on Nalini. Prakriti has now lodged a complaint with the police about the harassment perpetrated by the minister. She was summoned by the Crime Branch in the enquiry relating to Nalini Netto and she has given evidence. Her case has also been taken by the Human Rights Commission suo motto.

Though the former Minister had quit his ministerial post in the wake of the charge of sexual harassment, he had continued to be a Member of the Legislative Assembly. Now his Party has fielded him as a candidate in the forthcoming elections, despite his tarnished reputation, proving that political parties have a callous indifference to the candidates' morality or reputation or even criminality.

The case of P. E. Usha is again that of sexual harassment at the work place. She is a woman activist working at Calicut University and she is being relentlessly harassed by her colleagues at the University. Her context is different. Usha was the victim of sexual assault in a bus by a passenger. Though Usha succeeded in taking the bus to a police station and having the criminal arrested, police action was tardy. Its fall out was unbelievable. Her colleagues in the University began to harass and ostracise her, with one of them even alleging that the incident had taken place with her consent. Usha was menaced by threats that her daughter would also be attacked which forced her to flee the place. Though Usha has filed a case in the High Court and appealed to the Women's Commission, no action has yet been taken against her persecutors.

Usha filed a complaint of harassment at the workplace on January 4, but the University constituted a Committee, as prescribed by the Supreme Court, only on January 27. Ironically the committee, the majority of which comprise CPM members, is headed by the head of the Department in which her tormentor works. The University has also ignored the High Court directive to implement the Women's Commission's recommendations.

In response to the politicisation of the issue, Usha says: "I filed the complaint as a woman who experienced a traumatic episode of harassment. The case was filed with the police and the criminal was nabbed. My complaint was not a move against the CPI(M). It is true that I met M. A. Baby of the CPM, and, according to his instructions I gave a complaint to CPM State Secretary Pinarayi Vijayan. Though my complaint was genuine, no action was taken. I complained to Sthree Vedi later and though I wrote in the Malayala Manorama about my trauma I was not attempting to sensationalise it. Though I am the victim, I am being victimised now. I am out of the University while the man who is harassing me has been given a promotion." Usha has launched an indefinite fast before the University from April 18. Her oppressor has launched a counter-stir.

These are not isolated instances. A highly qualified scientist from Thiruvananthapuram is now out of work because of ongoing sexual harassment at the workplace. The case of a woman from the Kerala Water Authority who had also alleged sexual harassment is yet to find justice. Sexual harassment of women is an ongoing saga in the Telephone Department.

Politicisation of every issue in Kerala is becoming the bane of victims. If the ruling Party decides to protect its acolyte neither law nor society can help her. And criminals gravitating to Assembly and Parliament are now quite common. It is against this callous attitude that the Kerala Sthree Vedi is launching a campaign at election time. It has protested against the fielding of candidates who have been accused of sexual harassment from contesting the election. "We are campaigning in the constituency of Nadar and others who are similarly implicated", said Ajitha of Sthree Vedi.

Despite qualitative advantages , women are not psychologically empowered in Kerala to fight harrassment. Women outnumber men by 1,058 for 1,000 men, according to the latest census. It has the most literacy, including female literacy, the maximum number of graduates and post graduates and even professionally qualified women, yet women here are not on the political agenda of parties, to impact on women's issues or social position. Only eight per cent of women were fielded in this election, both by the Congress and the Left.

A sample survey conducted in Kochi under the auspices of DARSHN, an organisation headed by the former Director of the Women's Commission, Dr. Jacob Thomas, IPS, had found that it was quite widespread. Around 100 working women were interviewed in the survey and all had some experience or the other of sexual harassment. Women between the age group of 36 and 45 were the most vulnerable, according to Dr. Celine Sunny who conducted the survey.

The harassment ranged from indecent behaviour, sexually coloured remarks, invitation for sexual favours, touching, staring, et al, as also unnecessary summons to the chamber of the boss. "Women have low value in Kerala. It is a fallacy that Kerala women are more empowered", Dr. Jacob Thomas said. "When there is no free interaction, fantasy steps in. This also explains the flourishing pornography industry in Kerala", he adds. This trend is aggravated by the prevalent segregation of sexes practised in the State.

Unless women psychologically empower themselves they will continue to be victims and victimisation will continue. Even in 2001,the year of empowerment of women.

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