There’s a WhatsApp message doing the rounds: “Supreme Court judges: We do not want any female staff visiting our house.
Hello Honourable Judges! – Is this not what Lord Ayyappa was also saying?”
This message is doing the rounds after Times of India came out with this report – https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/need-to-find-ways-to-shield-future-judges-from-scurrilous-attacks-cji/articleshow/68998934.cms where it was reported that many Supreme Court judges asked for male staff instead of female staff, for working at their residence. The judges had done so after a woman staff had accused CJI Ranjan Gogoi of sexual harassment. Currently 60% of the staff are women.
While I do not agree with Lord Ayyappa being drawn into this discussion, the irony is unmissable. When it comes to their own houses and their own reputation, the Supreme Court Judges think it fit to prevent anyone as they wish, to enter their house. But when it comes to Hindu temples, do the Gods have no rights or rules that can be implemented? Do the wishes of the devotees carry no weight? When it was very obvious that save for a handful of temples, all other temples allowed for free movement of devotees irrespective of their sex, status, caste or any other condition, why did the Supreme Court Judges not think it important to let customs prevail as per the sanctity of the temple? They committed the unforgivable act of tarring Sanatana Dharma with the dirty brush dipped in the agenda of the Leftists, cloaked as feminists.
Now, the very same judges want to tar the entire female sex with the same brush by stating that women want to take advantage of the judges by putting up false cases of sexual harassment against the male judges? What happened to Women Empowerment now? One case, and they all get jittery and scared? If they have not done anything wrong, what are they scared of? Should all women staff in the Supreme Court be now looked at suspiciously just because one woman dared to put a complaint against the Chief Justice, however true or untrue it may be? Don’t the judges have any faith in their own verdicts and powers of delivering Justice to the aggrieved? It seems as if they themselves know how justice is meted out in courts and have lost faith in the system! How is the common man supposed to react?
On one side our government keeps furthering women education and on the other, when a sexual harassment case is put up, a big section of the male community seems to take great pleasure in proposing that the woman in question may be lying or imagining things. Another section of society also thinks then that it is just correct then that women do not find jobs because of the risk of sexual harassment suits in future. It is surprising in such a scenario that the very people who are supposed to give justice to the aggrieved women, start requesting for male staff. The glass ceiling just became harder to crack! Worse, if women are employed in future, it will be as if the men who are employing her are doing her a favour. Maybe, soon we will also see employment contracts stating that women employees should not file any case of sexual harassment against any male staff of the company, especially if the male is in a senior position.
It is time that society understood that sexual harassment is a reality and not imaginary. Yes, most women tend to brush it off because they need the job or because they are conditioned to think of it as normal societal behaviour. But it is necessary that men learn from a very young age, to draw a line between interaction and harassment, and learn that they should not cross the line.
While it is fashionable to talk about ‘freedom’ for girls from societal bondages, it should become fashionable to talk about societal bondages when it comes to correct behaviour, for both – boys and girls. It would be foolishness to think that only women face sexual harassment at the work place or in society. Men face it too – from men and women. One can put forward thousands of cases against molestation, harassment and rape, but true victory would come only when the society as a whole accepts the word “NO” and abides by it.
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