Bed no. 308 had 47 blood glucose. I have informed didi,” one said over phone while walking into an elevator full of other uniformed girls her age. “Now stash that phone away, will you?” another playfully scolded her.
“Shall we ask the cops about abusive patients?” another wondered aloud. “I always suggest sodium-potassium tests first if a patient is talking rot (electrolyte imbalance may cause confusion) but some are outright rude,” yet another said.
Over 200 nurses from three neighbouring hospitals had gathered at a banquet hall atop the Smart Bazar building in IB Block, not for medical upskilling but for legal awareness. Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate had organised a women’s safety awareness session, under the title “Ensuring safety & security at workplace”.
Women’s 24x7 helpline for Sector V: 91478-89454 (Electronics complex police station)
Tanusree Das, officer-in-charge, Bidhannagar women’s police station, addresses the nurses
“What constitutes sexual harassment is judged based not on what the perpetrator’s intention is but on how the conduct makes you feel,” Tanushri Das, officer-in-charge, Bidhannagar women police station, said.
“Save the landline number of the local police station where you stay or travel to, not just the Bidhannagar South police station, under which your hospital is located,” advised Sambiti Chakraborty, assistant commissioner of police, South, Bidhannagar.
Here are some more insights from the discourse delivered by Das, aimed at making the audience of largely female nurses aware about their rights and the legal provisions.
On July 1, 2024 the Indian Penal Code was replaced by Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). Earlier, criminal justice used to be dispensed according to the British-era Indian Penal Code.
Sections dealing with sexual harassment
lBNS 74: Sexual assault. Invoked if someone touches a woman inappropriately or hits a woman with the intent to outrage her modesty.
lBNS 75: Sexual harassment. This includes physical contact and advances involving unwelcome and explicit sexual overtures, a demand or request for sexual favours, showing pornography against the will of a woman and making sexually coloured remarks.
lBNS 76: Assault with attempt to disrobe. In many places, women are still branded as witches and paraded naked. That is one offence for which this can be invoked.
lBNS 77: Voyeurism. If a private moment is recorded, be it a recording from behind a curtain or through a camera installed in the changing room of a shopping mall, this can be invoked.
lBNS 78: Stalking. It covers situations where a man follows a person, especially a woman, and tries to make contact despite her clear disinterest, or monitors her electronic communication. Digital stalking includes sending her unacceptable, dirty messages and is considered a form of sexual harassment. This section aims to protect the privacy of individuals, particularly women, and guard them against intrusion into their personal lives.
lBNS 85: Physical or mental assault by husband or husband’s relative.
lBNS 86: Cruelty. This deals with wilful conduct that is likely to drive a woman to commit suicide or cause grave injury or danger to her life, limb, or health (whether mental or physical). It also includes harassment with the intention of coercing her or her relatives to meet unlawful demands for property or valuable security, like in dowry cases.
lBNS 64: Rape. The complainant’s name and address are kept confidential.
Domestic Violence Act 2005
This Act gives redress to a range of issues in case a woman is subjected to violence at home. For example, if a woman, married for 10 years or more, is suddenly asked to leave home, she would need redress for not just an act of violence, but also financial support, a place to stay or the right to custody if her child is taken away. Every police district has a protection officer for guidance to help seek redress in cases of domestic violence.
Pocso Act
The Protection of Children from Sexual Offence (Pocso) Act is for special protection of a minor, under 18 years of age, if a boy or a girl is assaulted or harassed. This applies to both male and female offenders. There is a court under a special magistrate in every district for hearings on the Pocso Act.
Zero FIR
Every police station has its own jurisdiction within which it operates. If you want to lodge a complaint, no police station can turn away a complainant, even if the place of occurrence of the complaint is outside its jurisdiction. Then the officer lodges a Zero FIR.
The Zero FIR is then forwarded to superior officers, through whom the complaint finally reaches the thana in question. This process takes some time.
There are allegations of police stations not accepting an FIR and asking the complainant to go to the thana where the incident occurred. While not justifying the refusal, going to the relevant thana and lodging the complaint there do speed up the process. This is just explaining the practicality of the situation, not an excuse for refusal to lodge an FIR.
General Diary vs First Information Report
A general diary is a register where every detail of the day taking place in a police station is recorded. Records of enquiries taking place as well as loss of objects reported at the thana are jotted down there. When the police receive intimation of a serious, cognisable offence, even that will involve writing a GD before lodging an FIR.
The police can decide to start an enquiry based on only a GD if they feel fit after taking permission from a special executive magistrate. If the enquiry reveals risk of cognizable offence in near future, the police can initiate non-FIR prosecution and get the offender to be bound down before the court.
If a police station does not take action on your complaint, you can move court after 15 days have elapsed of the receipt of your letter by the police station, be it a stamped receipt, an email or a speed post with a receipt.
Arrest
A woman cannot be arrested before sunrise or after sundown. If a woman has to be arrested, a woman police officer has to be present. A woman cannot be called to the police station for questioning or to bear witness. She has the right to meet the police at her place of preference. But a woman can always decide to go over to the police station on her own.
If a woman feels uncomfortable to report something to a male officer at a police station, she can ask for the presence of a female police officer. Every police district has a women police station to allow women to lodge complaints freely. The one in Bidhannagar is in the Electronics Complex police station in Sector V.
Organiserspeak
Chakraborty, the assistant commissioner of police, South, Bidhannagar, highlighted the role played by nurses in the recovery of patients. “So it is our duty to ensure your well-being. You spend long hours at your workplace, including night shifts,” she said.
Chakraborty asked the nurses whether they were aware of sexual harassment at workplace laws. “Anything that makes you uncomfortable is covered within the ambit of this law,” she added.
A nursing coordinator pointed to the threat posed by aggressive patients and the kin of patients. “Please tell us what kind of help we can get from you in this regard,” she asked.
Chakraborty replied that it was a big advantage that police stations in Salt Lake were close by and it was possible for the police to reach within minutes of getting a call for help. She also left her contact details with the audience members for them to reach out to at a personal level.
She urged the nurses to speak up if they faced or witnessed any kind of sexual harassment at work. “Someone asked me what we were achieving by holding so many awareness programmes as crime against women was on the rise. I told him crime was on the rise because with greater awareness, more crimes were being reported,” she summed up.