Sexual Harassment Has Been Listed As An “Unparliamentary Term”. Umm, Why?

A few days before the monsoon session of the parliament, which is all set to commence on July 18, Monday, the Secretariat of Lok Sabha released an entirely new booklet that talks about a whole list of words that have been decided to be “unparliamentary” in nature. The booklet talks about “unparliamentary language” and it has a huge list of words and phrases which have been deemed to be “indecent and unbecoming” for an elected leader in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.

How Does This Affect The Parliamentary Process?

The very essence of the parliament is the fact that the houses are supposed to discuss and cover every topic of essence along with talking about the painful topics but now that this new rule has changed everything. I mean, words such as “corrupt”, “hooliganism”, “hypocrisy”, “criminal”, “untrue” etc. — that are important to the electorate, are now disallowed. How are these parliaments supposed to make any essential changes?

Also, the very inclusion of the term “sexual harassment” in this list is obvious proof of the fact that the very discussion of sexual offences, which is an essential part of the problem against women’s rights, is now considered undesirable and has no place in the parliament.

How Does This Move Affect Women’s Rights?

This move by the parliament is a big part of the problem when it comes to the government and women’s rights. Women have been treated as second-class citizens all through history, this is just one more step in the same direction. Furthermore, This is also a move by those in power to shrug off their responsibility toward women. In fact, this is clearly a denial of justice too, to survivors of sexual harassment, assault and abuse.

 

It indicates the refusal of the parliament to address an issue that is so deep-seated that it even runs inside the institution, itself. Just declaring the word Sexual Harassment “unparliamentary” doesn’t mean that the harassment would halt. People will continue to face these issues and the only difference is the fact that, now, our leaders just won’t talk about them. Sounds great, huh? Totally expected.

Deeming any word “unparliamentary” takes away its power and gives way to invisibilization and not its normalization. It further prevents any possible and meaningful legislation, rulings and laws on the issue. Alas, this only makes room for more problems and issues for us to deal with, huh? Ugh.

Also Read: Mahua Moitra Starts A ‘Twitter Series’ As A Jibe At The Unparliamentary Words List Debate

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