The discussion is gigantic yet unseen due to the environment
of job and their workplaces. Despite comprising a very high percentage the
total workforce, the requirements of a secure working situation for those
working women in the informal and formal workforce remains insecure due to the
transfer-posting system. This is not only invisible in the discussion on the
working environment but also fail to get the normal public notice. The
harassment due to the frequency of transfer-posting of women employees in workplaces
such as banks, teachings, IT sector, government offices, projects, hospitals,
security and defence services etc. go unnoticed.
Nobody treats this menace as harassment. But this harassment
is not only physical and emotional but it breaks and divides the families. They
have to live alone, far away from their families. Women are, however, the
sustenance of our society, families and civilization. Difficult to have legal
recourses and fearing official humiliation and harassment, they just surrender
to the might of the indignity of the system.
A study conducted by a reputed organization found that the
women living alone are the most vulnerable women to workplace harassment and
social harassment. Some of the important grounds stated by the women employees
for not reporting or not taking any action against this type of harassment were
fear of losing job, absence of any competent and honest redressal mechanism,
absence of any impartial complaints and grievance redressal mechanism at the
place of work, fear of getting targeted by the authorities and expensive and
exhaustive redressal mechanism.
This uninformed and unseen harassment and injustice most
likely work as one of the big grounds for the dilapidated female workforce in
our country. A large number of women employees either forego the promotions or
quit the job due to the repressive transfer-posting system. Service conditions
in the banking sector are the very apt example of this type of harassment. This
is reducing the number of working women. It depresses and dampens the strength
and future of half of India’s population to have a say to the economy and
development.
There are many mechanisms to redress the sexual harassment,
like the Vishaka Guidelines and followed by, the Sexual Harassment of Women at
Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, which were
positively ground-breaking steps in addressing the problem but there is none to
stop the harassment due to the transfer-posting system. This is also a very
malicious harassment. This type of harassment can be seen in the government
sector, in the private sector, organised and unorganised sectors. There is an
urgent need to stop the transfer-postings of women employees, away from their
families.
Generally, there are many Internal Complaints Committees
(ICC) but none works to redress this harassment of Indian workforce to make it
gender and families just. This is the duty os the government to set up a ‘Local
Complaints Committee’ under the Act to ensure that women employees are posted
with their families and to investigate and redress complaints of harassment due
to transfers. But so far, however, the
government have failed in this direction and posting women workers with their
families.
In a big country like India, there is an urgent need to
address this issue. The first and primary work is to ensure, an effective
existence of LCCs in all the departments ensured with quick and efficient
functioning. For this principle, women officers, magistrates and NGOs must
conduct surveys of different offices and types of work that women in their
offices are involved in, and ensure the transfer at the place of their choice,
so that they can work and live safe and secure.
For diverse groups of employees, the duty of running LCCs
should be given to honest female officers or women employee organizations. The
Ministry of Women and Child Development should start a movement to achieve this
in a time bound approach. Radio and TV advertisements about the need and law
should extensively publicise this issue to create an awareness and fear among
the authorities. Just as announcements about ICCs are compulsory to be put up
in workplaces, LCCs must also be advertised and publicised in all areas of
female employment including offices, ministries, media and markets.
It is the responsibility of the government and the
authorities to ensure the protection and safety to the most vulnerable and
needy. If a woman employee is transferred and posted away from her family it is
not only her harassment but harassment os entire family. This harassment at
workplaces should be incorporated in all deliberations and discussions.
If we want to do away with this official menace from our
nation, we will have to deal with the origin of the issue, which is mostly in
evidence. What nation has been discussing the issue of sexual harassment is
just a lesser part of the other larger problems. With 1005 of the country’s female
workforce in all the sectors face this harassment. We should start to redress
this issue for the welfare of the women employees, department and the families.
The system should not break and divide the families.
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