Chapter 21: Safeguarding Women During Bleisure Travels: Content Analysis of Sexual Harassment Cases

The concept of bleisure travel, which combines business and leisure, has become a significant practice across the globe, especially in the corporate world. While this trend has introduced opportunities for both exploration and leisure, it also brings about peculiar challenges, particularly in ensuring the safety of women. In response to the rising need to protect women at workplaces in India, the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition, and Redressal) Act in 2013 was enacted, following the landmark Vishaka judgement of the Supreme Court. The law aimed at safeguarding women from sexual harassment by defining the ‘workplace’ in broader terms, extending beyond traditional office settings. However, despite these efforts, the law has not adequately addressed the complexities unique to bleisure travel. The lack of clear and certain guidelines or policies on how the law applies during such travels makes it challenging for organisations to ensure protection for women in non-traditional settings. This chapter seeks to analyse these gaps, focussing on the challenges in the implementation of law, and proposes solutions for improving legal frameworks as well as workplace policies. By examining case studies from around the world, this chapter aims to shed light on the unique and aggravated risks of sexual harassment in such settings. It explores the importance of redefining the law to explicitly encompass bleisure, ensuring that both legal structures and organisational practices are equipped to handle allegations of sexual harassment.