A seminar was told recently by a number of working women and women rights
advocates that sexual harassment, especially in the workplace, has not only
grown in Pakistan but has adopted new forms.
It has emerged that the new tools being used include the computer through which
offensive e-mails are sent to women and the mobile phone which is used for SMS
messages of the same nature. What is more interesting here is that unlike other
forms of harassment where the perpetrator leaves no trace of his misdeeds, in
this instance the proof is there for all to see.
Granted that emails can be sent from fictitious addresses and SMS from phones
which cannot be traced, the fact that this form of abuse is taking place
indicates that not enough is being done to check it.
One would have imagined that with the significant rise in the number of women
in the workforce, particularly the services sector, in the past five years or
so, the government and the private sector would have done more to check this
practice, but this is not the case.
As a first step, the government and the private sector should join hands to
start a campaign in which sexual harassment in the workplace is defined. This
will make working women understand what is acceptable and what is not
acceptable behavior in a workplace.
The second step in this national exercise would be to ask employers to put into
place a proper policy that defines sexual harassment and clearly spells out
what action is to be taken against someone found guilty of it.
In addition to this, employers need to have a mechanism which enables any
employee subjected to such harassment to approach an appropriate forum for
filing a complaint. The complaint should be treated confidentially and
investigated, and if guilty the offender should be punished according to the
employer's code of ethics for employees.
Of course, given that many companies have an environment which is more or less
male-dominated and where men are in most decision-making senior roles, it may
be a bit much to expect that things will change overnight. However, to do
nothing would also be a sign that we as a nation are not willing to evolve and
provide justice to those who are victims of this menace.
The government, for its part, should consistently monitor the implementation of
such a policy and possibly set up a hotline where affected women whose
complaints are not being given attention by their employers could complain.
Action should be taken against the employers and, if proven, against those who
are guilty of this abuse.
One can only wonder what our Women's Division has been doing so far since there
has been no meaningful initiative on their part in this regard. Thousands of
women in Pakistan, many of them in dire financial straits, leave their
employment because of sexual harassment.
A larger number of women endure it every day owing to the fact that they need
to support their families. We owe it to all these women to adopt a strategy
that will ensure safety in the workplace, both physically and mentally.
