‘Women’s safety in the workplace is no longer just a matter of discussion’

T. Kamatchi, a garment worker, speaks at the consultation meeting in Madurai on Saturday. | Photo credit: R. ASHOK

While the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) procedure has obvious shortcomings, setting up such a committee at the workplace is the only way to prevent sexual harassment of women, says S. Selva Gomathi, advocate and joint director of the Society for Community Organisation (SOCO) Trust.

Speaking at the ‘One-Day Consultation on Role of State in Ensuring Right to Decent Work of Women Workers at Workplace’ organised by SOCO Trust and Justice Shivraj V. Patil Foundation here on Saturday, she said, “Having such a commission would instill fear in men who think of intimidating women at workplace.”

After the Kolkata rape and murder case and other such repeated cases of violence against women, the idea of ​​’saving’ women from night shifts was mooted. But “how can anyone even come up with such an idea which would aggravate the already existing discrimination against women in promotion and wages and other matters,” she added.

“The idea should be to create a safer environment for women rather than trying to protect them by locking them in a ‘safe room,’ by depriving them of opportunities,” she noted.

“It is time for the government to implement the recommendations of the Verma Committee report to prevent such future occurrences,” Ms Gomathi said.

A professor at a government university and a member of the ICC noted that even the committee members blamed the victim. He said that forming a committee was only a first step, but that attracting the right members was an important step in achieving the goal of such a committee.

“When a committee member is a person with a conservative mindset, the victim is subjected to the same pain multiple times during the due process of handling the complaint,” she noted.

The implementation of legal remedies in most workplaces and educational institutions was so deficient that the victim had to relive the trauma by answering the mindless questions of the committee members.

“Sexual harassment cannot be limited to physical violence, but the verbal abuse experienced by students from their teachers and staff from their bosses must also be taken seriously as most of the recorded incidents started with verbal abuse,” she added.

Kamatchi, an association of women workers in the garment industry, said: “The exploitation of women’s labour at the lower levels of society by men in power is an ongoing violation of women’s rights and freedom.”

As women desperately seek money to support their families, men from supervisors to private business owners commit all kinds of exploitation against them.

Premalatha of the All India Democratic Women Association said that whenever a complaint box is set up at the workplace or in an educational institution to file complaints from staff or students, the institution promises that the complainant can remain anonymous.

But in reality, most complaint boxes in workplaces or institutions were under constant surveillance. “The norms that prescribe that the complaint box should only be opened in the presence of all committee members are easily overridden by the head of the workplace or institution itself to protect itself,” she added.

The patriarchal mindset was no longer a male thing, because even a woman with power, be it a superior or a police officer, treated the complainant aggressively and disrespectfully, she said.

“Women police officers need to be sensitized to treat victims of sexual abuse, or indeed all women, with dignity and respect. Women who visit a police station to report a complaint can never come out without facing a threat,” Ms Premalatha said.

Noting that the recent protests and outbursts demanding justice for the Kolkata doctor were welcome, P. Savithiri, a fellow with the conservancy, said the sexual abuse and assault experienced by women from the lower classes of society are often unexperienced.

“Some form of protection should be guaranteed for women like her, who survive their lives by working hard under unbearable conditions,” she noted.