To protect Indian women

Yesterday, the Indian Parliament's lower House(Lok Sabha) had passed a bill (Sexual Harassment Bill) after a great deal of work. Now it has to be passed in the upper House(Rajya Sabha) and then it will become law. Status of Indian women is very low as the traditional Indian society was strongly patriarchal. Although the feudal(traditional) age had passed long long ago, the mindsets of the people still lags behind. Women suffer harassment at the workplace; they suffer in public transport facilities(bus) and in other public places. Even women who sell vegetables and fruits are molested. Women who work as domestic help suffer too. Women suffer as patients in hospitals.To address the exigencies that Indian women face, this bill has been drafted. It will work in the ground level also; local complaints committee will look into the grievances and take action. Law and its implementation is very important. For a law to be effective, it has to be implemented well.
In the present India there is growth of the corporate world, where many women are employed. The market is developing fast and women have entered the labour market.And it is here that this law will be very applicable. If women complain of harassment, their complaint is held as trivial. And this discourages them.Many do not complain because of fear of not getting a promotion.Sometimes the service rules are such that they refrain from complaining.Sometimes they are framed for false complaint by the boss who snubs the complaint.Justice must be done.
There are ways which have been adopted by army , navy and air force to deny women permanent position in their organisation. They are "too old" to be made permanent, when they get the required years of service. Or some or other case is put against them and denied posts. These have to be re-examined, so that more laws can be made to allow women to be part of these organisations.
The best part of this Bill is that there is a prescribed time limit for making the complaints---ninety days. And sixty days has been fixed for recommendation.This is a very progressive bill which has come to protect women who live in present age in a society with old old values. There are still "khap panchayats" which do not allow women to use mobile hand sets. How are we going to cope with that? Let us think on that.