HYDERABAD: Even after the guidelines issued by the Supreme Court in 1997 to check sexual harassment at workplace, a majority of working women continued to be subjected to the menace due to lack of awareness, said Priya Narula, a human and civil rights lawyer and member of Asmita Resource Centre for women, here on Wednesday.

She was addressing an awareness programme on `Sexual harassment at work place' at South Central Railway headquarters organised with the initiative of the Hyderabad Divisional Railway Manager, Vandana Singhal.

Ms. Narula explained that the first and foremost directive of the Supreme Court was to create a Complaint Cell headed by a woman at every workplace with 50 per cent of committee members being women. It should also include an NGO or any organisation that is familiar with the issue of sexual harassment. As per a survey conducted recently, 60 per cent of women reported sexual harassment and 50 per cent of them were in private sector, she said.

Clarifying sexual harassment as any unwelcome sexually determined behaviour, both subtle and direct, she said that the Supreme Court had made it clear that no evidence was required to be submitted by the complainant. As the complaint would also be kept confidential, a woman should feel free to lodge a oral or written complaint with the committee that would look into the issue. Women should not suffer such behaviour as it would undermine their right to a life of dignity and equality.

Emphasising that no woman should suffer exploitation or discrimination at workplace, she said that it would result in emotional and psychological distress to the person concerned bringing down her productivity.

Ms. Narula said that organisations should recognise sexual harassment as a serious offence and formulate anti-sexual harassment policy, set up complaints committee and widely circulate the policy among staff so that it would act as deterrent. A healthy working atmosphere would help improve the productivity of its workforce and profitability of the organisation, she said.

Ms. Vandana Singhal said that an intensive 3-day workshop was organised at Hyderabad division recently and a complaints cell would be formed there soon. They also planned such a campaign for male employees to sensitise them, she added.

The chairperson of sexual harassment committee at SCR headquarters, Sunita Vedantam, advised women to seek redress when faced with such a situation.

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