‘Sexual Harassment’ as a concept was only identified in the 70’s and the term was coined in a session in Cornell University. Even though in practice it was universal, yet it was ignored, denied, trivialised and sometimes even indirectly encouraged, and of course, women were blamed for it. The definition of what constitutes sexual harassment has changed with time and the author who wrote it. From addressing only ‘sexual’ incidents traditionally, today it encompasses a much wider meaning. In the first part of this series, we have established that the Indian corporate sector is in dire of effective Sexual Harassment at Workplace policies; let us now understand the issue in a nuanced manner.
In the Supreme Court directive of 1997, Sexual Harassment has been defined clearly and extensively. The guidelines say that sexual harassment includes such unwelcome sexually determined behaviours such as:
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