What is Body Shaming?

Meaning
Body shaming means making fun, criticizing or mocking at
bodily faults or imperfections. Body shaming can be referred
to as the act of deriding or mocking a person's physical
appearance.
Sections related to Body Shaming
India doesn’t have a special section to deal with the cases of
body shaming but indirectly there are some laws that protect
from body shaming.
These laws are as follows
Here one is not on the verge of losing job due to obesity or
being too thin. Industrial laws and employment-related
enactments do not support body shaming. Any agreement
entered into under the vices of the Indian Contracts Act,
1882 shall not get terminated owing to obesity or skinny
figure.
Indian Constitution also rules out the concept of body
shaming. Article 14 upholds Equality before Law. It’s evident
that the citizens are treated alike putting aside their physical
appearance or gender.
Also the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace
(Prevention, Protection and Redressal) Act 2013 has also
helped women to fight against body shaming. Before this Act,
many women were humiliated by comments and gestures
hampering their modesty.
Section 354 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 also provides
against outraging of modesty of women.
Under Section 509 of the IPC, obscene gestures,
indecent body language and negative comments directed at
any woman or girl or exhibiting any object which intrudes
upon the privacy of a woman, carries a penalty of
imprisonment for one year or a fine or both.

Although Indian law does not use the term Eve teasing,

victims earlier usually seek recourse through Section 294 of
the Indian Penal Code, which sentences a man found guilty
of making a girl or woman the target of obscene gestures,
remarks, songs or recitation to a maximum jail sentence of
three months.

Judgements

The Supreme Court of India declared in P. Rathinam v.

Union of India, (1994) 3 SCC 394, that the term “life” in the
Right to Life and Personal Liberty u/a 21 of the Constitution
has a broad meaning. “The right to life u/a 21 includes the
right to live with human dignity, and the same does not imply
perpetual drudgery,” the court said. It incorporates some of
civilization’s finer qualities that make life worthwhile, and the
extended idea of life would include the person’s tradition,
culture, and heritage.”

As a result, it is apparent that body shaming is an inhuman

conduct when viewed in light of the aforementioned ruling.
Because of the violation of the victim’s fundamental right to
life and human dignity, the amount of mental angst,
disturbance, and agony caused by constant body shaming can
be construed as mental torture, psychological harassment, and
sexual harassment, clearly giving locus standi to the victim to
file a criminal complaint, a FIR, or even a writ petition against
the torturer.