Data dive: Can India overcome the cycle of sexual violence?
gender-based violence persists across sectors—civic life, business, entertainment, and politics. Legislative attempts to curb sexual violence have been made. The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act of 2013, passed after the 2012 Delhi rape case, aimed to tighten laws against sexual violence.
That same year, the Sexual Harassment of Women at the Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, or PoSH Act, was introduced to safeguard women’s right to work with dignity. However, over a decade later, its effectiveness is still in question. Economist Mitali Nikore, who specializes in gender issues, notes that while policies exist, the core challenge remains the allocation of adequate resources for proper implementation.
Even the Supreme Court has raised concerns over "serious lapses" in enforcing the PoSH Act. Raising awareness about women's rights has empowered more women to speak out about workplace harassment, but the resolution of these cases has not kept pace. According to an analysis by the Centre for Economic Data and Analysis at Ashoka University, which examined 300 National Stock Exchange-listed companies across the top, middle, and bottom tiers of market capitalization, only 81 out of the 300 reported any cases of harassment in 2022-23.
The issue extends beyond corporate settings—following the wrestlers’ protests, an Indian Express investigation revealed that 16 out of 30 national sports federations in India had failed to establish an internal complaints committee (ICC) as required by law. For women in the informal sector, such protections are even more elusive. In the wake of outrage over the rape and murder of a trainee doctor at a hospital in Kolkata, West Bengal’s state assembly responded by unanimously passing
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