Slow Progress to Creating a Safe Workplace for Women
Introduction:
- We were shocked to learn of the most recent allegations of sexual harassment against numerous Indian sportswomen (wrestling). Those affected had to protest by sitting in the capital in order to be heard. Because of this, it can be shown that the internal complaints body, if there is one, is ineffectual. It’s also possible that the wrestlers were unaware of it.
The Vishaka recommendations and the POSH Act of 2013:
- The Supreme Court (SC) enacted it in 1997 to address the legal loophole regarding the sexual harassment of women. It is now a parliamentary act known as the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act of 2013 (POSH Act).
- The guidelines for reporting harassment of women are intended to be followed by both public and private organisations. Given the delicate nature of the circumstance, the Union Sports Minister appointed a “oversight committee” to look into the allegations made against the head of the Indian Wrestling Federation, led by a female Olympic medallist.
- The Act specifies a definition for workplace sexual harassment and a process for handling complaints.
- Every business must establish an internal complaints committee, which must be present in every office or branch with ten or more employees. The same power to obtain evidence as civil courts is available to the complaints committees. The complaints committees must offer conciliation if the complainant requests it before starting an investigation.
- Those employers who break the law will pay a price. For infractions of the Act’s obligations, a fee will be charged. Persistent offences may lead to higher fines and the revocation of a business licence or registration.
She-Box:
- The Union Ministry of Women & Child Development has introduced the Sexual Harassment Electronic Box (SHe-Box). To make it simpler to report sexual harassment, it is a single point of contact for all women, regardless of their job status, whether they are employed in the organised or unorganised, private or public sector. When a complaint is submitted using the “SHe-Box” portal, it is instantly sent to the appropriate authorities who have the power to look into the matter.
Arranging for violence:
- Acts of violence at the workplace might be either direct or institutional. Although the environment that fosters reporting of physical violence has increasingly improved, indirect violence is still being fully addressed because it is so rooted in our social and economic structures.
- It is made more clear by the gender wage difference that exists in both organised and unorganised businesses. The historical fact that society is still patriarchal and that women are not just in the minority but also hold a small percentage of the higher positions as a result of there being more men in the workforce makes men feel entitled and empowered to take unfair advantage of this fact.
Information on the workforce:
- The Worker Population Ratio (WPR) of women increased from 16.5% in 2017–18 to 24.2% in 2020–21, and the Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) increased from 17.5% to 25.1%, but it is still significantly lower than that of men, according to the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) annual report for 2020–21.
- The LFPR and WPR figures from the most recent Quarterly Report (April-June 2022) are also unimpressive. WPR is the proportion of the population that is employed, whereas LFPR is the percentage of the population that is in the labour force (i.e., both employed and unemployed or seeking employment).
Moving ahead start early and at home.
- The absence of a supportive and secure work environment is one of the factors contributing to women’s low labour force participation. The present procedures for obtaining justice are either nonexistent or insufficient, and it is widely acknowledged that few women report sexual harassment. Because it is easy to threaten their employment in return for improper favours, they are more likely to be used by their supervisor.
- If the idea of treating men and women equally is not ingrained early on during character development during childhood, it will be difficult to change the stereotyped power relations between men and women in the future.
- The “nature versus. nurture” debate contends that a person’s development is influenced by both heredity and environment. While some characteristics of a person’s personality may be predetermined by their DNA from birth, social conditioning, the home environment, and early schooling have a greater influence on a child’s development.
- If both parents do not respect one another and do not treat their boy and girl children equally in all respects, they will grow up perceiving this imbalance as a natural phenomenon that could even lead to the emergence of criminal tendencies in men. The start must therefore be completed at home.
Defining goals:
- Similar to this, it is the responsibility of the employer to provide a secure workplace. The employer requires that the workplace be safe and inclusive of women. However, it has been observed that whenever allegations of sexual harassment are made against superior authorities, the accused either turns to numerous litigation attempts to stall the due process or attempts to discredit the victim on dubious grounds, rather than having the complaint promptly investigated under the law, i.e., the POSH Act, 2013, rather than having the complaint promptly investigated under the law. The problem gets trickier when the accused is in command of it.
- It is so important to set objectives to improve the working environment for women. Creating the required infrastructure for women, internal complaint committees, and increasing knowledge of grievance resolution law and process could all be short-term goals.
- Raising the percentage of women in the workforce, improving the tooth-to-tail ratio, and providing incentives to keep kids in school, such as paid maternity leave, can all be considered medium-term goals.
Conclusion:
- In order to overcome the systemic structural and cultural violence that disadvantages women, long-term change is required. Until society as a whole consistently tries to execute the essential reforms in the current socio-cultural and economic institutions to remove indirect violence from the root up, the current scenario might not improve.
