The sacking of Phaneesh Murthy of iGATE wakes up India to a largely neglected issue.
You don’t see such high-profile sackings here in India not because harassment doesn’t occur. It’s largely because this issue doesn’t get the attention it deserves.
A Delhi court framed prima facie criminal conspiracy charges early this week against Gopal Kanda, promoter of a private airline and former Haryana Minister, in the airhostess Geetika Sharma suicide case.
Two years ago Pradeep Shrivastava of Idea Cellular resigned following sexual harassment charges. Though he joined another company months later, the incident pointed to the simmering gender inequality in the corporate world.
Requesting anonymity, a top HR executive of an IT firm said that a good number of such cases do happen at the junior level. “You don’t see them at the top level much here in India,” he said.
Women activists allege that majority of the cases do not see the light of the day in the absence of transparent policies and sensitivities. Of late, some IT companies have begun to engage women activists to vet the harassment charges.
“It is quite possible for people in IT, BPO and FMCG companies to enter into different kinds of relationships. It could be because of the similar kind of profiles or the work environment. They may end up in dating, love or in extra marital relationships,” Saundarya Saundarya Rajesh, President of AVTAR Career Creators and FLEXI Careers India, said.
The onus, she said, is on the companies to have a clear policy stand on how to deal with issues borne out of such relationships.
kurmanath.kanchi@thehindu.co.in