Corporates yet to ‘start-up’ cells that deal with sexual harassment

It all started when an anonymous post from a woman went viral accusing Arunabh of touching her inappropriately. The post prompted more women to come forward and share similar harassment encountered by them. The initial reaction was outright denial, for which the team was criticised online. It also sparked a big debate on the issue. 

Vaishnavi Prasad from Chennai took to Twitter to talk about the harassment case against an organisation, where she volunteered for over eight years. Without naming the organisation, she tweeted, “Considering the whole TVF thing, I’m reopening what happened with me in 2013, for which still I haven’t received justice.” She went on to talk about how a man in a senior position behaved and when Vaishnavi raised a concern to the management, she was asked to leave. 

“When this entire episode came to light, I saw comments such as ‘why is she anonymous’ and this it is not legitimate. I don’t know Arunabh and I am no one to comment about the allegations against him. But, I can speak about myself. Back then I wrote a post and after it was shared, people started talking about it. I was threatened with a defamation suit. People came to my house and spoke to my mother, after which she was so scared that she asked me to take back the case. People must understand that there is a lot of pressure on a woman when she talks about sexual harassment and her character becomes a coffee-table conversation in the entire office.” 

Recently, Uber came under the scanner when an employee talked about how the organisation ignored the sexual harassment case she charged. There were also talks about lack of awareness among start-ups. “I was working in an eight-member start-up in the city and one of the co-founders used to text me late in the night. We had an informal work set-up and were comfortable. When he said that he would take me to a meeting only if I agree to go on a date with him, I took the matter to the other founder. The latter assured me that it was harmless and I must not take it seriously,” says a 20-year-old start-up employee, who requested anonymity. 

According to a survey by Forum for IT Employees (FITE), though there is the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplaces, Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal Act 2013, about 70 per cent of the organisations, (across all sectors including start-ups), do not have a committee or a cell that women can approach of file a complaint. “The awareness level is low among women and only a few companies conduct active workshops for their employees sensitising them to sexual harassment at workplace,” says Parimala Panchatcharam, President of FITE, Chennai.