Understanding and Perception of Working Women towards Sexual Harassment Act

Sexual harassment at work place in India is 'quite prevalent' but the victims refrain from lodging a complaint facing social disgrace and loss of work. Sexual harassment affects all women in some form or the other. Lewd remarks, touching, wolf-whistles looks are part of any woman's life so much that it is dismissed as normal. Working women most commonly face the backlash to women taking new roles, which belong to male domains within patriarchy. Sexual harassment of working women is an extension of violence in everyday life and is discriminatory, exploitative, thriving in atmosphere of threat, terror and reprisal. In 1997, the problem of Sexual Harassment was addressed by Supreme Court in Vishaka Case. The present paper attempts to explore working women's perception about sexual harassment, whether their understanding of sexual harassment coincides with Supreme Court's definition.