Male sexual harassment is a verity!! In the wake of the #MeToo trend, signifying an outrage against sexual harassment, as primarily a patriarchal crime in the vision of the Indian Law as well as the Indian society at large, sometimes, some cases enlighten the fact that this is not a gender-specific crisis, and that it may happen with both women and men, invoking the requirement of a gender-neutral law enforcement in the country.

Male Sexual Harassment Case Study:

To begin with …

The day 23-year-old Ankit Khurana joined the well organized IT Company as a junior web developer. He was placed under Ms. Meenakshi (43), who controlled most of the operations of the company as Sr. Operations Manager. For the first six months, Ankit got all the guidance from his boss who often remarked about his handsome physique and clear blue eyes that always sparkled with emotion and intelligence.

However, after the expiry of the first six months when Ankit’s employment was confirmed, his boss casually asked him if he should take her out to celebrate the occasion. As romantic Ankit who was deeply in love with 18-year-old Dipeeka whom he was scheduled to marry immediately after his confirmation naturally expressed his inability on moral grounds, albeit the plea that he was short of funds. But things took a bad turn when Ankit continued with his negative response even after Meenakshi offered to foot all the bills. The help and cooperation that was extended to Ankit soon evaporated from Meenakshi’s side and was replaced by sternness and hindrance at every point.

The real catastrophe started soon after when Meenakshi reported sick and asked Ankit to visit her at home over the telephone. As refusal to visit a sick person tantamounts to bad etiquette, Ankit went to see his boss the same evening. He took along with him a bunch of flowers and intended to cheer up his ailing boss. However, he was shocked to find Meenakshi opening the door, attired in a flimsy see-through nightgown, welcoming him in a strange manner. But more mayhem lay in store for poor Ankit as strong and stout Meenakshi embraced him deeply, dragging him down to the bedroom, and forcing her on to him!!

The Aftermath…

It may be irrelevant to describe how Ankit managed to flee after coming out of the clutches of his lecherous spinster boss. However, may be considered quite relevant to know how she made his life miserable by way of putting hurdles at every step he took to keep his job secured in the company.

The worst part of the whole story is that Ankit had no way to register his complaint. He could not approach his colleagues for fear of being ridiculed as nobody really believes in Male sexual Harassment. Ditto with the law enforcement authorities, as there is no statute in India to protect males from sexual assault by females.

The gender bias is hard to ignore…

According to the present day Indian law, modesty, as an alibi, exists only in women. The singular type in which a wrong sexual advancement on a man is considered as an offense is as sodomy under the Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code. Other than that, there is no law to punish a person for molesting a man. This absence of legal statute does not originate from the absence of crime, but from lack of sufficient evidence. As stated above, many males face sexual harassment in the workplace, both at the hands of men and women, yet are unwilling to expose the type of criminality perpetrated on them.

In 2013, Government of India passed its stop-gap Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance on the recommendations of the Justice Verma Committee, which substituted “sexual assault” for “rape” and made the crime gender-neutral from the aspect of both perpetrators and the victim. Nevertheless, the changes introduced in the Ordinance were reversed with the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act through incessant lobbying by Women’s Groups. They claimed that Rape was an explicitly patriarchal crime. However, our definition of rape needs to progress from non-consensual penile-vaginal interactions to non-consensual penetrative-orifice interactions!!

We at IndiaMouth vehemently oppose such outrage of modesty, irrespective of the gender. Suitable amendments should be made to the Indian penal code so as to address this biases. Male sexual harassment exists and needs to be curbed, once and for all.

Twinkle Das

As a highly competent executive, presently holding a responsible position (Operations Manager) in a renowned Information Technology Company, the author is a happily married lady who is an MBA (Finance) from ICFAI, Hyderabad (2004 batch). She is also a model mother who can run an office and a happy home with the same efficiency and competence.