Making workplace safer for women

Of late, various kinds of sexual harassment at workplace have been coming to light, thereby raising awareness about the repercussions on the perpetrators, including legal consequences. Keeping in view the dimensions of sexual harassment across the country, SHE Teams -Hyderabad, in association with Soroptimist International -Hyderabad,started an initiative called SH(OUT)- Sexual Harassment Out: ‘We are listening’.

The panel discussion that was conducted in Hyderabad witnessed a galaxy of speakers air their informed opinions, including Commissioner of Hyderabad City Police Anjani Kumar, Olympian P V Sindhu, Addl. ommissioner of Police Crimes& SIT Shikha Goel, Founder of Working in Harmony, Shruthi Joshi and president of Soroptomist International -Hyderabad Deepika.

According to a survey, only 27 percent of Indian women are working and about 38 percent of them are victims of sexual harassment. The speakers gave insightful accounts of ways in which sexual harassment at workplace could be prevented. The session started with the speakers addressing various dimensions of the core issues and pointing out what could be done in given situations.

Throwing light on key issues, Addl. Commissioner of Police Hyderabad City, Sikha Goel said: “There are so many doubts and misconceptions about the entire concept of sexual harassment. A person belonging to any gender can be a victim or a perpetuator. In most of the cases, the harassment starts in the most unexpected ways-- it starts with moves as a key pointer. Sexual harassment at workplace is a behaviour that makes a woman uncomfortable and creates unwelcome or hostile working conditions.

As we can see that only 27 percent of women work in India out of the 48.5 percent of women population. In 2016, women contributed about 27 percent of national GDP, which means that women’s equality makes economic sense.About 38 percent of women were sexually harassed and 31 percent of them complained about it. With companies focusing on gender diversity, creating a comfortable and safe working environment should be more of a right than a choice.”

Speaking about this topic, the Olympian Sindhu said, “Sexual harassment is a kind of discrimination that includes unwanted or unwelcome sexual behaviour. As every one of us is aware, the #MeToo movement has brought a lot of awareness recently; it certainly made a difference. When I visit abroad, I see that there is a lot of respect given to women and whereas in India we fall a little backward. Society has changed and so the behaviour has to change towards women as they deserve respect and as women, we deserve it too.”

With Hyderabad being a city that is safe for women, it is a moment of pride when we think about it. Enlivening the discussion, Commissioner of HyderabadCity Police Anjani Kumar said, “I am happy to say that Hyderabad is safer for women and would like to appreciate the SHE Teams who are working with these cases on a serious note.

When it comes to sexual harassment at workplace, it is important for every company to be aware of laws and abide by them. If a person is caught with a bad behaviour, companies should be aware that when they remove him from work, the reason must be mentioned. In this way, issues like sexual harassment would drop drastically. It is important to understand, prevent, and respond to the crime. Let us make a better future for our daughters and granddaughters,” he observed.