Its official: 60 percent bosses are cupids

Untowardly behaviour from bosses and male counterparts at work place need not affect your career anymore. You can now walk into a nearby police station and lodge a complaint. Stringent action will be taken against the accused within a few hours, said deputy commissioner of police (Central Crime Station), Satyanarayana. As many as 40 to 60 per cent of working women face sexual harassment at work place, very often in the Information Technology (IT), IT-Enabled Services (ITES), Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sectors. Some cases are also reported in government departments. A few weeks ago, a woman constable in a city police station complained to the top police brass that her colleague molested her by force. After a preliminary probe, the boss warned both of them and transferred them to different localities. In another case, 25-year-old Keerthana (name changed), an employee in a software firm, who did not reciprocate her co-worker's interest, began receiving calls from him and later from his friends and other co-workers. She started feeling very uncomfortable in the presence of Shanker and her colleagues. Her participation in the official gathering gradually reduced and performance at work was being affected. Finally, she left the job while refusing to lodge a complaint with police. In yet another case, a 35-year-old teacher working at an international school requested the police to take action against her colleague who sexually assaulted her. She however asked the police not to register any case against him as she was reluctant of the media intrusion. Satyanarayana told Expresso that despite a number of working women facing sexual harassment at workplace, they hesitate to lodge a complaint. As many as 1,459 cases were booked by the CCS till the end of September 2010, as against 1,444 cases in 2009. "With respect to sexual harassment on women at work place, we have filed 172 cases, of them one was a mistake of fact (MF) case and the rest are true cases. Out of these 26 cases were charged, 8 were convicted, 2 compromised, 16 are pending trail (PT), 3 standing and 143 cases are under investigation,'' the DCP said.

  

By Mouli Mareedu 

moulimareedu@gmail.com