Reporting Sexual Harassment At Work: An Honest Summary

What do you when want to report sexual harassment at work, but your HR committee refuses to listen? (Photo: Susnata Paul/The Quint)

The security manager of a 5-star hotel in Aerocity was caught on camera allegedly molesting a female staff member. The manager, Pawan Dahiya, apparently asked her to sit beside him and made sexual advances – and when she refused, he pulled her sari, at which point, she walked away. According to the victim, when she complained to the hotel authorities, she was asked to leave, and told that “he will harass you everyday and finally, you will yourself leave your job”. While the authorities remain adamant that they have initiated no such action against her, the victim has lodged an FIR.

In the light of this incident, The Quint is republishing a video of an “honest sexual harassment interview” between an HR manager and a victim of sexual harassment at a workplace.

“It must have been your fault.”

“Why didn’t you report it before?”

“You’re taking his harmless jokes far too seriously.”

“All this new-age feminism is making the men in the organisation insecure.”

…These are just a few of the choice responses that women who attempt to report sexual harassment at their workplaces are often met with.

What do you when you’ve been sexually harassed and need to report your perpetrator to an HR committee that will not listen? What if the latter only reinforces the baffling, pervasive victim-blaming culture that you feared in the first place?

Things need to change, and the Vishaka Guidelines need to be implemented with greater force than ever before.

This satirical take on an “honest sexual harassment interview” – between an HR manager and a female employee – is, however, a sad reality in many offices.

Script: Urmi Bhattacheryya

Cast: Vatsala Singh and Urmi Bhattacheryya

Video Editor: Puneet Bhatia

Animation: Susnata Paul

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