Lawyer and rights activist, Vrinda Grover (Left), with the Chairperson of the Nagaland State Women Commission, W Nginyeih Konyak, at the press conference in Dimapur on May 24.
‘Eve-teasing a terrible vocabulary trivialising sexual harassment’
Morung Express News
Dimapur | May 24
Vrinda Grover, the legal counsel for the Nagaland State Women Commission, said that women continue to face sexual violence despite the many legal provisions prohibiting “any form of sexual offense.”
A New Delhi-based, lawyer, researcher, and human rights and women's rights activist, Grover made the comment at a press conference in Dimapur, addressed in tow with the NSCW on May 24, in connection to the IAS officer, Reny Wilfred case.
Besides, she pointed out what she termed as commonly misunderstood by the general populace— associating sexual violence with rape, only. According to her, the perceived confusion is deliberately created to disable women from getting aware of their rights.
While terming “eve-teasing” as another “terrible vocabulary,” she said that it is an example of how the people in general trivialises sexual harassment.
On the contrary, she said that sexual violence is a spectrum of offences. It could be a sexual remark, coloured remark, it can be a request for sexual favors, an unwelcome physical contact or explicit sexual overtures.
She cited how after the landmark 1997 judgment of the Supreme Court in the Vishaka case, all workplaces, private or government, across the country were required to have Internal Complaints Committees (ICCs) for addressing sexual misconduct at the workplace.
While most workplaces did not immediately act, she reminded that the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, codified what the 1997 judgment said.
She said that the NSCW, by filing the complaint against the accused IAS officer, is furthering the commitment to ensure that women's dignity and rights are promoted and safeguarded.
Meanwhile, she wondered if all the institutions, either private or government, in Nagaland today have ICCs. “Does this tell us something about how we treat women? How we look upon women? And how we think sexual harassment is something minor and why make such a fuss about it?”
“Do you have Vulnerable Witness Deposition Centres in Nagaland?” she asked, adding that it is a Supreme Court guideline. It enables witnesses and victims to give evidence without coming into confrontation with the accused. Nagaland however has yet to put in place such centres in every district, she said citing the NSCW.
Grover further pointed out that while the government suspended the accused IAS officer in the latest case against him, it did not specify the offence under which he was being investigated. “This suspension order is completely silent and does not tell what are, is, the nature of the criminal offense,” she said.
“Justice must not only be done, but must seem to be done,” she asserted, while stating that when a government official is suspended, it must not, in any way, appear to be shielding or giving differential treatment to the person being investigated.
