Towards Gender-Neutral Workplace Sexual Harassment Laws in India: A Critical Legal Analysis

Abstract

A Perpetrator under the Indian Legal system can be a man or a woman. It does not discriminate while considering his or her as an accused but on the other hand we have come across so many legislation that consider woman as the only victim and not man. And we are living in a developing country where the courts and Indian culture has also given recognition to a third gender, they too can be a perpetrator or a victim as well. That same gap can also seen under various legislation. One such legislation we are talking about here is the Prevention of sexual harassment of women at workplace, 2013. As we all know that the President Draupati Murmu has also highlighted that India need to ensure that 70% of the women participation in the work force. It has already grown from 21% in 2017 to 40.3% in 2023-24. Woman are holding a higher post, Under the Companies Act we can see that it is required by the companies to have one woman independent director. Hence we can see that it is need of the hour to give protection to not just women but also man as we are growing in different area we need to uphold the principles of our Indian Constitution as well i.e. bring equality at the workplace. Equality does not come only by giving participation to all gender but it also comes from giving protection to all gender, making feel secured to all gender.  The absence of Gender Neutral laws in this perspective is raising a serious concern against the exploitation of men at the workplace where they also experience nearly similar levels of oppression and psychological trauma like women. The researcher is trying to highlight the gap and need of the gender neutral law at workplace for sexual harassment and protect the safety of all employees irrespective of gender.