The history of workplace harassment is long and sordid; however, laws dealing specifically with workplace harassment are relatively new in both the United States and India.

The effective prosecution of workplace harassment cases was long hindered in the US; two dichotomies, the market-family and the state-civil society, held that the domain of women was in the hearth, and as long as any inflicted harassment doesn’t include any state actors, the federal legal system shall leave the prosecution of workplace harassment cases to the state. While there is a provision in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, where employers cannot discriminate on the basis of race or sex, for a while harassment was seen as an act that wasn’t serious enough to be considered as ‘discrimination on basis of sex’.

The two dichotomies weakened over time, leading up to the Violence Against Women Act in 1994, which not only reinforced the case for prosecuting harassment cases, but also introduced redress for prosecutors who refused to prosecute such cases. Even then, the standard for sexual harassment was held to be higher than simple unwanted sexual behavior. Such behaviors only become illegal when there is a quid pro quo situation (where refusing sexual advances may lead to job-related losses) and in case of a hostile environment, where the behavior is repeated often enough to create an unwelcome environment.

In India, the government enacted Sexual Harassment at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, which provides redress to an aggrieved woman, who can file a complaint against other employees or anyone else she comes into contact at the workplace.

As it stands, around 5 million women are harrassed in the US each year. The majority (99.8%) do not report these incidents.

Of these, an average of 9,242 cases were filed to EEOC (Equial Employment Opportunity Commission) each year on average from 2012–2016. The number jumped to 26,978 in 2017, of which around 50% were sex-based harrassment and a quarter was sexual harrassment. Most of these charges are judged to have potential legal merit, but in the end, around 1,800 of these charges lead to a conviction. Only a small number of these actually go to court, and victims rarely sue the employers through EEOC. What’s even more surprising, however, is that 46% of these cases also have a concurrent charge of discharge due to retaliation.

75% of victims have claimed that they faced retaliation after reporting harassment.

Why Most Women are Silent in India

In India, while the numbers are lower than in the US, it’s likely that a much lower percentage of victims choose to report their cases. The reported number of workplace harassment cases increased by 54% from 2014 to 2017, increasing from 371 to 570.

The increase in reported cases is in part due to the greater awareness generated by the MeToo movement. Actress Tansuhree Dutta reported harassment by actor Nana Patekar on a movie set in 2008, and ten journalists came forward with stories of harassment by MJ Akbar, a politician and a journalist. In india, the majority of these claims come from Uttar Pradesh, accounting for 29% of all claims. Furthermore, these statistics ignore the state of the informal sector in India. Around one-third of all domestic help face sexual harassment.

In India, as with the US, around 70% of victims claim they faced retaliation after reporting their cases.

“Low or no reporting speaks volumes about the gender sensitivity of a particular organisation,” said Anagha Sarpotdar, a researcher to IndiaSpend. “Women may not know where to go to report harassment or it could be that the cases may not have been dealt with sincerely. Often, women go to committees believing them to be independent, and find that they are actually puppets in the hands of their superiors.”

In India, complaints are first filed to an Internal Complaints Committee. These are formed internally within each organization, in order to review the complaints before any action is taken. However, according to a survey by the Indian National Bar Association in 2016, around 67% of respondents were unsatisfied with ICCs’ verdicts on complaints.

Some Jobs Are More Prone to Sexual Harassment than Others

There are a variety of risk factors that increase the chances of harassment in some professions compared to others. For instance, workers in food and accommodation services represent around 14% of the reported cases to EEOC, which is much higher than the proportion employed in the sector. Also, workers who work in isolated environments, such as janitors, domestic care workers and hotel workers face greater harassment.

According to a National Domestic Workers Alliance and the University of Chicago report, 36% of domestic workers surveyed were harassed, threatened, insulted or verbally abused in the previous 12 months. Furthermore, women who have temporary legal arrangements or no visa status are also more vulnerable to harassment, as many fear that reporting their cases may put their immigration status at risk.

Women working in traditionally male-dominated fields, especially those involving a lot of physical work, also report greater harassment.

Around 6 out of 10 female construction workers reported being touched or propositioned for sex. 26% of women in the US military experienced sexual harassment or gender discrimination in 2017. Men in positions of power, such as Louis CK and Harvey Weinstein, are also more likely to cause sexual harassment, as they often believe that the rules don’t apply to them and they won’t face the consequences of harassment.

The Case in Bangladesh

There is no specific legal provision for sexual harassment in Bangladesh. However, there is a High Court directive that makes it mandatory for workplaces to have a five-member harassment complaint committee, directed by women to investigate internal claims of harassment.

“On one hand, laws hardly define sexual harassment at workplace, and on the other there is a lack of enforcement of the laws,” said ActionAid Bangladesh Country Director Farah Kabir. “The guideline alone is not sufficient to deal with sexual harassment cases. We have prepared a draft and proposed the government to make a law, but there is no progress,” said Salima Ali, a former executive director at Bangladesh National Women Lawyers Association.

While there are no official numbers that showcase the state of workplace harassment across the country, according to a 2018 study, around 13% of garments worker face sexual abuse at their workplaces.

The Way Forward

As workplace harassment is a multi-faceted problem, we require a concerted effort from various parties to address it. Firstly, adequate measures must be taken to make sure that harassment in the workplace is not only discouraged, but also that women feel secure about coming forward with their stories. The fear of retaliation, in particular, must be dealt with in a comprehensive manner.

The government also plays a major role in prosecuting harassment charges. In Bangladesh, in particular, a stronger legal framework is needed to address harassment claims.

In places like the US and India, more work needs to be done to ensure that a greater percentage of harassed individuals come forward with their stories. Currently, only 0.18% of harassment incidents are reported in the US. The stigma (and the fear of retaliation) must be dealt with directly, and internal committees should review claims and enforce actions with impunity, instead of working to avoid legal responsibility.

It’s unlikely that such sweeping changes can be easily adopted across the world, but recognizing the need for these changes and working on them at both grassroots and top levels is the catalyst we need to progress the conversation on workplace harassment. We have come a long way from the nineteenth century, where legal principles like coverture prevented women from being recognized as having a legal existence separate from that of her husband’s. However, there is still a lot more work to be done, and we must be vigilant in that regard.