Chithra Chandrasekharan, Symbiosis Law School Nagpur & Dr. Jerryl Banait, AVI Foundation
ABSTRACT
Women have been oppressed by society for years. They were considered as weak and submissive. And this has been the scenario in not just India but in the entire world. They were just meant to look after the house and kids and raise the family. Now though the things are changing to some extent, there are still people who consider women as a lesser being and always want to dominate them.
Domination is one of the greatest causes leading to harassment of women in the society even today. Even though in ancient history the scholars, grammarians, saints and scriptures stated that the women should have equal status with men, but these readings and thoughts were never followed which led to degrading the women’s status in the society. The best example is the medieval period which helped to change the whole status and scenario of the women in a negative way, where all the cruel customs were introduced like sati, child marriage, etc. In the name of religion or custom or society, women were subjected to crude behaviour which undermined their rights. Even today women are subjected to various types of abuse like-physical or mental abuse, sexual abuse or even financial abuse. This article focuses on laws related to sexual harassment and its punishment.
