Apu’s World

It is now almost 20 years since the Visakha guidelines were first put in place, to protect working women from sexual harassment at their place of work. Still, it is clear that in many cases, the implementation is not clear at all. Two days ago, Nisha Bhatia, a Director at the RAW Training Wing in Gurgaon, swallowed poison in front of the PMO, alleging that her complaints regarding sexual harassment by top RAW officials were not being taken seriously.

RAW claims that Nisha Bhatia’s allegations have been looked into by a committee headed by deputy national security adviser, Leela K. Ponappa and including two women officials from the National Security Council secretariat and RAW. Nisha Bhatia claims that the committee didn’t really investigate the case objectively, and put the onus of proof solely on her. RAW claims Nisha Bhatia is unstable, or seeking publicity because of a foriegn posting that she was denied. He said, she said, he said, she said.

Shouldn’t there be a better way to do this? For starters, the Visakha guidelines recommend that any enquiry commission should have an outside participant, such as someone from an NGO working with gender issues. Clearly, it was felt that people from within the same organization, or system, would face pressures from higher authorities accused of harassment. In India, where everything is politicized, this is not hard to imagine at all. In Nisha Bhatia’s case, this doesn’t seem to have been done. Even if the committee consists of women, women are not immune to pressure from within the system.

The guidelines also state that the concerned department needs to submit reports to the relevant ministry, on the cases filed in this area, and the actions taken. The Ministry for Women & Child Welfare has stated that this is not being followed by most government departments. If RAW has really probed the case in detail, it is not clear why the organization is giving fairly vague responses. Yes, I know it is an intelligence agency and all that, but giving a clear response on a sexual harassment case is not going to jeopardize national security. Instead, the only responses are that the allegations are false, that Nisha Bhatia is unstable, and that the committee has finished the probe. Whether or not Nisha Bhatia is right to handle the issue in this manner, government departments, working on taxpayer money should be answerable to people and furnish information on how they handle such issues. Surely it will encourage women working elsewhere that their rights can be safeguarded.

Now, the Union Minister for Women and Children, Renuka Choudhary claims that she is going to take it up with RAW. Again, that sounds like a terribly ad hoc measure. How many cases is the Minister going to get personally involved in? And this is a high profile case, with a senior official filing the complaint, and the suicide bid attracting attention. How many such cases are there which never come to light?

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apu Women & Feminism