Citing many examples from the mundane life where a woman faces harassment, be it from her husband, boss or a colleague, High Court Justice Govind Mathur urged the female fraternity to muster up courage to complaint rather than ignoring them as a natural behavior from men.

“I feel sad to say, 100 years back, woman was vulnerable when she was kept behind curtains and she remains so even today after coming out of it. Now she is seen as a ‘saleable’ item in the era of consumerism,” said Justice Mathur while addressing an enlightened gathering on Saturday at a national seminar on ‘Awareness generation for prevention of harassment of women at workplace’.

The seminar was organized by the Internal complaints committee and MHRM department of the Mohanlal Sukhadia University.

“Even an advertisement of a machinery has a beautiful female face smiling and woman is being portrayed as a product,” roared Mathur. Citing the famous Nargis Mirza case of 1978, Justice Mathur said that the airhostess was removed from her job because she had delivered a baby since the airlines didnt find her fit any longer to attract customers. But the judiciary upheld the fundamental and human right of the lady for motherhood and helped her get reinstated.

“There are 5,500 cases of missing girls in Rajasthan while 44,000 similar cases are pending in Andhra Pradesh, however, not a single case of sexual harassment at workplace is pending at any courts in Rajasthan, to my knowledge, which is a grave issue of concern” Mathur said. “Women have conditioned themselves to accept the attack on their existence and dignity and unless they stop ignoring the nasty behavior, acts cannot help” the Justice asserted.

A radical change in attitude of society coupled with enforcement of protection laws, awareness among women and girls could only address the solution otherwise ‘The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013’ too will become next in the series of the dumped 750 enactments that have lost its utility, Mathur said.

Speaking on the occasion, the guest of honour Prof Sunita Zaidi of Jamia Millia Islamia Univeristy, New Delhi said despite of the increasing educational level and participation of women in economic activities, social evils prevailing in the society continues to keep them at margins.

Prof I.V Trivedi, V-C of MLSU, Prof D.S. Chundawat, director of MHRM department, Prof Meena Gaur, chairperson of the internal complaints committee of the university too addressed the audience.

Contributed by: Geetha Sunil Pillai