Harassment of women at workplace: Yogi-ruled UP tops; Karnataka in sixth place

Countless women may face harassment at their workplace across, but nearly two women raise voice against harassment everyday with the National Commission for Women (NCW) receiving an average of 1.7 complaints per day in 2017.

This doesn't include complaints filed to internal committees in companies or government deparments. Experts say more than twice this number may have gone unreported owing to various factors, including insensitive managements and insufficient redressal framework.

In 316 days between January 1 and December 12 this year, the commission received 539 complaints, 60% of which were from just five states: Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana – four of them are ruled by Bharatiya Janata party. 

A whopping 26% (141 cases) of the total cases were registered in Yogi Adithyanath-ruled Uttar Pradesh alone. Karnataka, which is in sixth place, saw a total of 36 such cases throughout the year.

Three months ago, after the Karnataka Women's Commission (KWC) ensured action against a supervisor of a garments firm in West Bengaluru, 11 other women also complained of harassment by the same man for several months.

"It is not just garments, or the government but a majority of complaints come from technology firms that have well-educated workers. There are two kinds of harassment, professional and sexual, and as I've seen, many cases that began as professional harassment eventually end up as sexual. The commission has been proactive in responding to all complaints but there needs to be prevention which is important," KWC chairperson Nagalakshmi Bai said.