Sexual harassment at workplace

bhanwari devi,gangraped for speaking out against child marriage,and womens activists,struck a blow for gender justice

It began when Bhanwari Devi,a saathin or village-level worker in Bateri in Rajasthan8217;s Bassi tehsil took a stand,risking her life and her family8217;s,showing extraordinary courage in the face of a social boycott after five men raped her in 1992 when she tried to stop a child marriage. But she stood her ground. The incident changed her life and shaped the women8217;s movement in Rajasthan.

18 years on Bhanwari Devis fight for justice continues. But after that day on September 22,1992,the movement managed one significant victory,the Vishakha judgment of August 1997. The verdict,on a PIL filed by Vishakha and four other women8217;s groups in Rajasthan against the State and the Union of India,provided the basic definitions of sexual harassment at the workplace and also laid down guidelines for dealing with it.

The most frightening part was that the heinous crime was committed to teach Bhanwari Devi a lesson for exposing a child marriage in the village. The five accused took it almost like a challenge to hurt Bhanwari Devi,8221; asserts Kavita Srivastava,now the Peoples8217; Union for Civil Liberties general secretary in Rajasthan. She adds that Bhanwari Devi refused to give up,leading to more support from the public. According to Mamta Jaitley,who headed the Idhara state program and now heads Vividha,a women8217;s group,a testament to Bhanwari Devi8217;s courage was when she continually spoke about the crime itself. 8220;It was for the first time that a woman was not ashamed of rape and in fact,spoke openly about it. She stoically tried to explain to people that the rape was not her fault, Jaitley says. The two most important issues that the movement continually attempted to address was the denial of justice and a fair investigation. It started with everybody insisting that Bhanwari Devi was lying about the crime,thus killing the investigation from the start. We picked up these issues and ran with them, Srivastava said. She added that in 1992 the crime and Bhanwari Devi emboldened other victims to come out and complain.

But Bhanwari Devi has shown more patience than even her ardent supporters despite the fact that it was the movement surrounding her trauma that lead to the Supreme Court8217;s sweeping court mandate against sexual harassment. Of course I want to win the case and finally get justice because 18 years is a long time and two of the accused have already died. But I have waited this long and will continue to wait. At least the issues of sexual harassment at workplaces emerged as a serious issue, says Bhanwari Devi.