The LAW on eve teasing

Under Indian Penal Code the term eve teasing is not used. There are three sections under which action can be taken against eve teasers. Section 294 punishes any obscene act or recital of any obscene songs or ballad or words in a public place with a punishment of three months or fine or both.

Section 509 (Indian Penal Code) punishes anyone who, to intrude upon the privacy of a woman or with an intent to outrage her modesty utters any word, makes any sound or gesture or exhibits an object with an imprisonment for one year or fine or both. It is a cognizable as well as a bailable offence. A question can be raised as to what constitutes an obscene act. For example in the case of Ram Das v State of West Bengal  the court decided that removing one’s pants before sleeping is not obscene as anyone would do the same to be comfortable. The facts of the case were that a man removed his pants (he was wearing underpants) in a train in front of two women and their male partners which resulted in a fight between them during which he pushed one of the women. Another question is why should the act be restricted to a public space? If it is committed in a private place under which section will the offender be punished?

Another section is 354 (IPC) according to which anyone who uses forces or assaults a woman to outrage her modesty will be punished with 2 years of imprisonment or fine or both.

In addition to these laws The Delhi Prohibition of Eve Teasing Act 1984 and Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Eve teasing 1988 was introduced but many argued that the existing laws were sufficient to deal with the offence provided both the people and the authorities are aware as well as use the provisions.

Often eve teasing and sexual harassment at workplace are assumed to be the same. This doubt arises due to lack of definition of the term eve teasing and its easy use to describe incidents of sexual harassment. Hence, there is a need to discard the term eve teasing and adopt the term street sexual harassment.

Another issue is the kind of punishments meted out to offenders. The law provides 2 years of imprisonment or fine or both. But is this enough? Will such punishment be able to change the attitude of the offender or will it just arouse feelings of revenge. In an innovative effort a Delhi court made one such offender distribute handbills raising awareness on eve teasing.

In another instance the police gave the offender the punishment of sitting like a murga (cock).

As different as these punishments might be and even humiliating these just show how trivially the offence has been treated by our enforcement agencies and justice delivery system. An eve teaser is usually just admonished by the police or given a light beating but only rarely is a case filed against them. Such attitude renders the law empty and futile.