Slow Progress to Creating a Safe Workplace for Women : Daily Current Affairs

Date: 22/02/2023

Relevance: GS-2: Issues relating to the development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, and Human Resources.

Key Phrases: Sexual Harassment, Vishaka Guidelines, Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR), Worker Population Ratio (Wpr), Social Conditioning, Deep-Rooted Structural, And Cultural Violence, Internal Complaints Committees

Why in News?

Allegations of sexual harassment have been leveled against the Wrestling Federation of India by some of India’s sportswomen (wrestling) leading to a protest in the capital.
This shows that the internal complaints committees are not functioning well or the wrestlers were not aware of it.

Key Highlights:

The Vishaka guidelines on reporting harassment are meant to be followed by government and private institutions equally.
The Union Sports Minister constituted an ‘oversight committee’ headed by a lady Olympic medal holder to investigate the charges leveled against the president of the Wrestling Federation of India.

Vishaka Guidelines:

A case was filed in the Supreme Court of India in 1997 (Vishaka versus the State of Rajasthan and others) highlighting the incident of a brutal gang of a woman.
The lack of a framework, regarding sexual harassment faced by Indian women in their workplace, was recognised, and certain guidelines were passed by the Supreme Court that was in effect until a comprehensive law regarding sexual harassment in the workplace was implemented.
These guidelines were called the “Vishaka Guidelines” and included the
- Definition of sexual harassment
- Disciplinary action for sexual harassment
- Formation of a complaints committee to investigate complaints of sexual harassment.
The Visakha guidelines, which were legally binding, defined sexual harassment and imposed three key obligations on institutions —
- Prohibition
- Prevention,
- Redress
The Supreme Court directed that they should establish a Complaints Committee, which would look into matters of sexual harassment of women at the workplace.

Law Against Sexual Harassment Or POSH Act:

The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act was passed in 2013.
It defined sexual harassment, lay down the procedures for a complaint and inquiry, and the action to be taken.
It broadened the Vishaka guidelines, which were already in place.
It mandated that every employer must constitute an Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) at each office or branch with 10 or more employees.
It lay down procedures and defined various aspects of sexual harassment, including the aggrieved victim, who could be a woman “of any age whether employed or not”, who “alleges to have been subjected to any act of sexual harassment”.
This meant that the rights of all women working or visiting any workplace, in any capacity, were protected under the Act.

Direct And Structural Violence At Workplace:

Violence in the form of sexual harassment at the workplace is both direct and structural.
While an enabling environment for reporting direct violence has shown a gradual improvement, indirect violence remains poorly addressed because it is embedded deep in our social and economic structures.
It is more visible in the employment imbalance prevalent between men and women, in the organised and unorganised sectors.
With more men in the workplace, they feel entitled and empowered to take undue advantage of the historical fact that society is still patriarchal and women are not only in a minority but also occupy a few of the higher positions.
The numbers matter when it comes to power emanating from the majority.
One muster the courage to voice one’s grievance when there are sufficient numbers in support of the affected person.
When the number of women in leadership positions is not enough to generate confidence in subordinates, women in lower positions feel reluctant to air their grievances.

Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) Annual Report 2020-21:

The PLFS annual report available for 2020-21 shows that:
- the participation of women in the total labour force grew, i.e., the Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) has gradually increased from 17.5% in 2017-18 to 25.1% in 2020-21
- the Worker Population Ratio (WPR) from 16.5% in 2017-18 to 24.2% in 2020-21
However, it is still much less when compared to men.
The LFPR and WPR data published in the latest Quarterly Bulletin (April-June 2022) are not encouraging either.
While LFPR is defined as the percentage of persons in the labour force among the persons in the population (i.e., both employed and unemployed or seeking employment), WPR is the percentage of persons employed among the persons in the population.

Major Hurdles Faced By Women At Workplace:

The absence of an enabling and safe working environment is one of the factors for the poor participation of women in the labour force.
Most women do not complain of sexual harassment and the current redressal mechanism is either non-existent or ineffective.
They are more vulnerable to exploitation by their employer as they can be easily threatened with their job continuity for indecent favours.

Start Early And At Home:

Unless the mindset of treating men and women as equals is developed at an early stage of character formation during childhood, the stereotyped power relation between the two would be difficult to change later.

Nature Versus Nurture:

The theory of criminology known as ‘nature versus nurture’ says that both genetics and the environment affect an individual’s development.
While genes may decide certain features of one’s personality at birth, it is social conditioning and the environment of the family and early schooling which matter the most during the growth of children.
Unless both parents respect each other and treat their girl and boy children on par in all respects, they grow up learning this inequality as a normal phenomenon, which may even lead to the development of criminal tendencies in men.
Therefore, the beginning has to be made at home.

Fixing Goals For A Safe Working Environment:

Providing a safe and women-friendly work environment is the responsibility of the employer.
However, it has been observed that whenever allegations of sexual harassment are leveled against superior authorities, instead of getting the complaint inquired into expeditiously under the law, i.e., the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal), Act, 2013, the accused either resort to multiple attempts at litigation to stall the due process or attempts to bring disrepute to the victim on flimsy grounds.
The situation becomes more complex when the accused himself is at the helm of affairs, as in the examples given above.
Therefore, it is essential to fix goals to improve the workplace environment for women.

Short-Term Goals:

The short-term goals may include providing-
- The requisite women-friendly infrastructure
- The constitution of internal complaint committees
- The spreading of awareness about the law and procedure of grievance redress.

Medium-Term Goals:

Medium-term goals may include the increase of female participation in the labour force, improvement of the tooth-to-tail ratio, and providing incentives to prevent drop-outs such as paid maternity leave.

Long-Term Goals:

It is essential to address the deep-rooted structural and cultural violence which puts women in a disadvantageous position.

Conclusion:

Unless society as a whole works incessantly to bring about the required changes in the existing socio-cultural and economic structures to eliminate indirect violence, root, and branch, the status quo may not change.

Source: The Hindu

Mains Question:

Q. While genes may decide certain features of one’s personality at birth, it is social conditioning and the environment of the family and early schooling which matter the most during the growth of children. Illustrate in the context of deep-rooted structural and cultural violence and stereotypes prevalent in Indian society. (250 words).