Nagpur: Severely shaken up by the news report of Nagpur Today, the General Manager of IT firm in Nagpur soliciting sexual favours from the female employees of the company, the senior officials including the Managing Director and deputy Managing Director of the company held a late night meeting with the alleged accused General Manager on DEC 1, 2015.
The company officials have started a mad search for the person or employee who has gone to the press with the information. Almost all the female employees were quizzed to ascertain as to who has leaked the news of sexual harassment to the press. Some of the victims of the General Manager’s alleged lustful endeavours have been shifted to other departments.
However, what is atrocious and painful is the fact that instead of changing or sacking the allegedly accused General Manager, the female employees have been transferred.
Now visualize this
You have qualified for a particular trade or specialization. You get recruited and have been working in that particular department excellently. However, because you are subjected to frequent sexual advances by the boss, you gather guts and report about the erring official to the owner of the company. What results is that instead of sacking the erring official, the company management decides to transfer you to another portfolio within the department. This is creating a duress or pressure to make you resign and leave the company.
Are such acts common in workplaces?
In recent times, the typically male dominated workplace has been replaced by a large number of women taking up employment in every field or career. However, this has also led to a number of issues that affect the integrity of the women and have an impact on the physical, mental and social well being of the women. Sexual harassment is still a part of the workplace in many ways or forms, irrespective of the fact that it is reported or not. Women generally do not speak of any act of sexual harassment committed to them. Any act of sexual harassment can leave a woman with physical, mental and emotional problems that would have a deep impact on her future life.
Are the victims responsible for such acts of lecherous men?
The most important reason is that women are often made to feel responsible for what happened to them. Victim blaming is a common phenomenon observed in India even in heinous rape cases. A woman is often told that it is her way of dressing, or her behavior towards the colleague of the opposite sex is the real reason she was sexually harassed. Victims are also made to feel responsible about what can happen if they report such a case. Victims are often told that reporting the case would have a detrimental impact on the future of the institution/organization that they are working for.
State of Trauma
Young women are sometimes unable to come to terms with the trauma that such incidents unleash, so they decide to simply pretend that the act in question never took place. The emotional dilemma that victims who are at the receiving end of such wanton acts of degeneracy experience is totally frightening or devastating.