"Sexual harassment: Legislation yet to be implemented in tea gardens, reveals survey"

A survey in 24 tea gardens of the Terai and the Dooars has revealed that legislation enacted 10 years ago to redress incidents of sexual harassment of women at workplaces has not yet been implemented in tea gardens.

Although around 51 per cent of employees in this sector are women, they don’t know about the [Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prohibition, Prevention and Redressal) Act, 2013,], the survey also revealed.

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Sanhita, a Calcutta-based NGO, did the survey and conducted a meeting with trade unions in collaboration with Nagarik Mancha to share the findings.

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No initiative has been taken by tea companies — the employers of these women — to implement the Act in their respective gardens, [Sirsha] Gupta, [the programme officer of Sanhita] said. It is mandatory to have a four-member committee (referred to as an internal committee in the Act) at workplaces.

According to Section 4 (C) and Rule 4 of the Act, 2013, the committee will have an external member from NGO/association "committed to the cause of women or a person familiar with the issue of sexual harassment".

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She said they spoke to women tea workers, state labour department officials, tea planters’ associations and trade union representatives.

“It is alarming that the Act has not been implemented in an industry where women form the majority of the workforce,” Gupta said.

Representatives of the planters' fraternity said they would look into the matter.