I am an advocate by profession, having 08+ years of work experience in the field of HR, Brand Management & Sexual Harassment matters at the individual and corporate level, with various segment of industries and individuals, at all heads.
Sexual Harassment is a topic that has always intrigued me & made me question the belief system of the society. I have seen the vast number of people, facing the challenge in expressing themselves and speaking up on the harassment or surviving the harassment scenario.
Every day we see the number of stories being uploaded on various social media channels, we see news of such harassment cases being conducted, and apart of these, there are many such cases that go unregistered and unnoticed, and I have seen those cases happening, wherein the person feels so helpless that they cannot complain, due to lack of proof or might be that the other person is so influential that no one would believe the complaint or the other person might hurt them in some way or other, due to the fear of societal reputation being damaged, lack of support, and many more reasons.
Whereas, I sincerely feel, that only one simple reason is enough to SPEAK UP, and that reason is “YOU ARE NOT OKAY WITH IT”. But this reason stays laid under the number of reasons that are put forth to not speak up.
These things compelled me to think, and I made up my mind that I would do something so that such harassment activities stop. I did try various campaigns, to show support to the people so that they could come forward and talk about it. People will share their stories with you, their fears with you, but the moment you ask them to come forward and speak up, they will deny. The fear of societal image and reputation being damaged, has buried down many such stories, and also, their silence has given wings to the other person to NOT STOP and keep doing such shameless acts without any fear.
I was born with a passion to serve people and with a turmoil within me against any such evil acts. I run various such campaigns, against such evil activities, with a vision to eradicate it to the highest possible limit.
It is very easy to share the stories of such people. People do surely sympathize with you and write various support comments and words, wherein you feel that everyone supports you and favors you. But the day you decide to fight for yourself, you will find yourself all alone.
To be honest, “You are your best friend & the ideal supporter”.
Since the day I realized this, I have never looked back. I realized that rather than speaking up to people and convincing them to speak up, it is better to educate them and make them understand it with their own perspective. Since that day, I have tried and utilized the best of my potential to educate people and make them understand, why everyone should speak up for their own self. Once you have decided that you have to speak up for yourself, all the “ifs”, “buts”, “whys” and “hows”, have their answers.
I have also written a book on “The Sexual Harassment Of Women At Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition And Redressal) Act, 2013”, to explain people on how this Act benefits the people in the Corporate World & what measures the Government has taken to eradicate such criminal offense from the society.
Moving into depth into this brutal reality of the society, it is also observed that, Sexual Harassment, is not just for women. This is no more a society where only female are harassed. In the present scenario, we can see that even men are harassed, and worser than that is the harassment & rapes that are happening with the kids, these days. Kids! Who are considered to be the most innocent souls, who are not even aware of what these things are supposed to mean? We, as a society, have not even spared them.
This is a topic that could go ON and ON, without having a stop. So, rather than dragging the issue, let us understand, we, as an adult, can take small steps to avoid it. One of the most important step that we should and we must take is “SAY NO”. This would be first step towards speaking up for yourself, and demotivating the harasser.
Once you start speaking up for yourself, and communicating yourself in a clear and assertive tone, it will automatically demotivate anyone who has any sort of negative thoughts about you in his mind. Also, it will give people a clear indication of your wants and needs, without any misleading.
There are various other steps that are needed to be taken, to protect and safeguard yourself and keep yourself self-motivated and strong. Do follow me on my social media, and get to know each and every detail, on how to be your hero and fight for yourself. Also, you can go through the book, where you get all the detailed insights about the Act.
This is not only a book, but a detailed guideline for every individual in order to understand the Sexual Harassment Of Women At Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition And Redressal) Act, 2013.
This book will also serve great help to those who are willing to enter into the field of PoSH as an External Member, or industry HR who are a part of the Internal Committee in their organization.
I have tried to keep as much as information that should be known to an internal or an external member, and also, can be used as a training module to explain the Act to the organizational staff and employees.
In this book, I have tried and covered all the important and relevant content that are must be needed to be a true PoSH Committee Member (IC Committee) professional and also, helps to understand the real role of an IC committee. This book, satisfies the industrial needs from an IC Committee.
In today’s situation, industrial owners need an IC Committee, who have the knowledge and awareness about law requirements, necessary documentation preparation and issuance to employees, various forms and formats to be maintained as per law, to build employee relations, enhance employee engagement and other policies and procedures to be implemented in the organization and most importantly, is to report all this to the management and concerned district and state authorities and keep the management updated every time.
I have put all my efforts, and am completely sure that this book will make the readers well versed with the important and mandatory knowledge and awareness, an IC Committee Member, or any individual should possess.