A lot has already been said about gender injustice, and sexual
harassment is one unethical issue which most of us see in out day to day lives.
Not just limited to touch, but the lewd remarks, greedy eyes, quirky smiles and
raunchy gestures which looked like
a nightmare, now have become a part of life. But does that goes untouched
psychologically? My answer to that thought, even now, goes …… A BIG NO!!!
During my legal research work, many questions popped up and
raised my anxiety level to search for ‘the’ milestone case which asked the apex
court to pick up the stick. And here comes “the” case, in much simplified terms.
The case of Vishaka
v. State of Rajasthan which
came before the Supreme Court in the year 1997, revealed the hazards to which working
women could be exposed if there was no check on the extreme depravity and
perversion to which her fellow workers could sink.
The Supreme Court guidelines came about due to the gang rape of
Bhanwari Devi by a group of Thakurs, as punishment for having stopped a child
marriage in their family. This provoked women's groups and NGOs to file a
petition in the Supreme Court of India and the result is the Supreme Court
guidelines on sexual harassment at workplace.
Bhanwari Devi was a village-level social worker or a saathin of a
development programme run by the State Government of Rajasthan, fighting
against child and multiple marriages in villages. As part of this work,
Bhanwari, with assistance from the local administration, tried to stop the
marriage of Ramkaran Gujjar's infant daughter who was less than one year old.
The marriage took place nevertheless, and Bhanwari earned the ire of the Gujjar
family. She was subjected to social boycott, and in September 1992 five men
including Ramkaran Gujjar, gang raped Bhanwari in front of her husband, while
they were working in their fields. The days that followed were filled with
hostility and humiliation for Bhanwari and her husband. The only male doctor in
the Primary Health Centre refused to examine Bhanwari and the doctor at Jaipur
only confirmed her age without making any reference to rape in his medical
report. At the police station, the women constables taunted Bhanwari throughout
the night. It was past midnight when the policemen asked Bhanwari to leave her
lehenga behind as evidence and return to her village. She was left with only
her husband's bloodstained dhoti to wear. Their pleas to let them sleep in the
police station at night were turned down.
The trial court acquitted the accused, but Bhanwari was determined
to fight further and get justice. She said that she had nothing to be ashamed
of and that the men should be ashamed due to what they had done. Her fighting
spirit inspired fellow saathins and women's groups countrywide. In the months
that followed they launched a concerted campaign for justice for
Bhanwari.
On December 1993, the High Court said, “it is a case of gang-rape
which was committed out of vengeance”. As part of this campaign, the groups had
filed a petition in the Supreme Court of India, under the name ‘Vishaka’,
asking the court to give certain directions regarding the sexual harassment
that women face at the workplace. The Court was moved greatly after this brutal
gang rape of a lady who was working for such a significant cause in the
country.
The facts of the case made judges to think and feel for the
pitiable and miserable conditions of women in the country and this situation
accompanied by the legislative absence compelled the Court to take such an
unexpected decision. The result is the Supreme Court judgment, which came on
13th August 1997, and gave the Vishaka guidelines.
