Dear Learners It is now time to end our discussion on sexual harassment at the workplace, which is one of the greatest occupational health hazards that are faced by women in the workplace. In fact it is now being recognised that it is not only the formal workplace where women run these risks but the same situation exists in informal workplaces as well - including the domestic worker, the vegetable vendor, the daily wage labourer and several hundreds of others not in formal sector but nonetheless employed. The Law has recognised this as a serious issue and such workers can resort to a Local Complaints Committee for Redressal of cases of sexual harassment. Though contended by several persons, the law is confined to addressing sexual harassment of women alone - either by men or other women. While some say this is unfair, as men too get sexually harassed at the workplace, the fact of the matter remains that the percentage of men being sexually harassed by other men or women is so low, as be almost nil and therefore the law does not cover them. In fact if it were to be so, the issue if sexual harassment at the workplace would get diluted, as efforts to address this phenomenon which is a daily occurrence in women’s lives would be reduced to a general feature of the workplace. Further, it might then be showcased that since men do not report cases of sexual harassment the same would be the situation with women and the urgency of the matter would be supressed. Please do write in to me in case there are any other queries that you would like to seek clarification on. Warm regards Martha