Sexual harassment
A REPORT by an independent researcher reveals that 78 per cent of women face some form of sexual harassment in the workplace. This is not surprising given how women are routinely harassed in public spaces – ogled at, made to hear lewd comments about them and often touched inappropriately.
All this is made worse in the workplace where it can leave long-lasting psychological scars, be it in the corporate sector or in people’s homes for domestic staff. According to details, 25 per cent of home-based workers are harassed by customers, family members or middlemen. While poor women suffer the most, no one is immune from sexual harassment.
Not even women legislators, as one saw in the Sindh Assembly last year when MPA Shazia Marri, and a few others, complained of harassment by a male MPA. Thankfully, the speaker suspended the MPA in question for his unbecoming conduct. Until and unless a woman steps forward to lodge a complaint which is then followed up by serious action against the erring one, sexual harassment will continue to occur.
A law that was amended last year to include sexual harassment as a punishable offence was welcome but separate legislation is required to make it a criminal offence. Only then will perpetrators think twice before harassing a woman.
It is important too that people are made aware of the unacceptability of sexual harassment anywhere. A woman should not be vilified for speaking up against a colleague or employee who is behaving inappropriately with her at work. Many women do not complain because they fear that they will not be taken seriously or their careers made to suffer.
The same is true of home-based workers so dependent on their paltry incomes that they suffer humiliation in silence. This attitude must change. What is needed is support from employers as well as society.
Source: Dawn
Date:7/18/2007
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