By Rohool Banka

A law is only as strong as the hands that uphold it. In Kashmir, where thousands of women step into offices, hospitals, schools, and studios every day, that law exists. But the hands are missing. And so is the safety.

In 2013, when India passed the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, what we now call the POSH Act, it was supposed to be a turning point.

It was seen as a statement that the country would no longer tolerate silence or shame where women work.

That dignity would no longer be conditional. And that every office, employer, and district had a duty: protect her, or be held accountable.

But in Jammu and Kashmir, the POSH Act has been reduced to paperwork. It hangs on bulletin boards, forgotten. It sits in policy files, unopened. It exists in law, but not in life.

Across the valley and beyond, from Srinagar’s government offices to Pulwama’s coaching centres, from Kupwara’s clinics to private schools in Anantnag, the stories are disturbingly similar: no Internal Committee, no awareness drives, no........

© Kashmir Observer