Sexual Harassment is considered to be one of the most unethical, immoral, unwelcomed conducts of an individual. It is a forceful act of a person against the consent of the victim. To constitute sexual harassment the conduct of the person should be unwelcomed in the sense that the recipient should disapprove the advance, request or conduct of any sexual in nature. In Indian Criminal Law, it was only in 1997( Vishaka and others Vs Union of India, AIR 1997) that , sexual harassment of working women was given a understanding and defined. Sexual harassment against women violated the very principle of right to gender equality and the right to life and liberty. Article 14 and Article 21 of our Indian Constitution lays down the basic principle of equality and right to life with dignity but however sadly we have observed that this is not the case. Section 294 of IPC, section 354A, The Sexual harassment of Women at Workplace Act,2013 are some of the laws in India to protect the women against sexual abuse but sadly the rise in the sexual offences has clearly reflected the failure of judiciary somewhere to implement these laws. In the landmark judgment of Vishaka v. State of Rajasthan 1997, J.S.Verma CJ of Supreme Court Said That” It includes protection from sexual harassment and right to work with dignity, which is a universally recognised basic human right. The common requirement of this right has received global acceptance”. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948, is reflected in our Indian Constitution which guaranteed all the basic and fundamental human rights. However some cases were reported that of former researcher of Energy and research institute at Delhi who accused her Boss of sexually harassing her on social media. In another case a senior IAS Officer alleged that a Former Punjabi director general of Police, touched her inappropriately at party. Sexual harassment is an arbitrary barrier to sexual equality at the work place. Six types of law may be potentially applicable to sexual harassment in a recent ILO publication namely Sexual harassment law, equality and sex determination, law, human rights law, labour law, tort law and criminal law. The statement “Me Too” went viral in the internet as it laid down the platform to the victims who were subjected to sexual abuse to oppose it and speak about it. It is high time that the basic idea of gender equality should be recognized and every individual should have equal opportunity to work with dignity.
