2 years, 1 month ago-
How safe are women at their workplace in current time?
After a lot of struggle and fights women are still not safe at their workplace. Women’s safety and its issues are heard all over the country. Every year the number of reports on sexual harassment at workplace is found to be increasing.
From last 10-20 years women have secured a higher standard at their workplace. They are now choosen for higher authorities and have a big portion in the society.Women now are becoming more independent. They are competent and strong enough to take care of everything. They are becoming more able to have and make their own choices and live according to their needs.
Still everyday women are mistreated and illbehavioured at the workplace by their co-workers in the name of promotion of women. She wants promotion but through her hardwork not at the cost of being sexually harassed. When we see statistics on sexual harassment at the workplace we get shocked. According to a survey 81% of women have faced sexual harassment and abuse in their lives. It can results into anxiety, depression,physical and mental health degradation of women. It’s disturbing and disappointing that women at work still face sexual abuse due to which many women decide to leave the job.There are several women who are facing the same or even bad situations.
There must be some rules and regulations which should be followed by men in the organization. This will reduce the sexual abuse towards women and they can feel more safe at their workplace and also not have any fear of losing their job.We all know that women have to always face difficulties in their day to day lives, be it personal or professional. When we talk about professional lives we unconsciously know how women face sexism , criticism , less pay and sexual harassment in the workplace.
We all have learned about many cases of how women have practically attempted suicide just because of this thing and leave their jobs due to fear of this tragedy. Though there are laws for it but still sometimes women fear , social stigma makes her afraid and even if it’s reported the criminal uses connection to get out of it.
Many women suffer from body shaming ,groping, inappropriate touching , flirting and sending porns and countless other things in the workplace. Sometimes we all see this happening and choose to shut up and ignore but we need to understand that not always ignorance is going to be bliss.We need to really report this and take action for the sake of our safety .
Here are some laws which can help us:
Sexual harassment of women at workplace- This law claims for employer to protect right of female employees and develop intolerance.
POSH – The fullform of this term is prevention of sexual harassment at work.
Sexual harassment policy- So every office small scale or large scale has this policies anf you can report them even if you are feeling yhat someone is staring at you .
ICC – Internal complaints committee for women safety- women can complain within 90 days of an incident and also if she is not comfortable ,her friend or family can complain with her written consent.Apart from this, companies should also take care of things like women working overtime for only 2 hours. No working on off days allowed and cabs should come prior an hour of leaving time. HR department should protect on women’s right and we should encourage women to report and express .
Workplaces are usually unequal and it is a global truth, one can easily understand it by seeing the pay, the positions, the designation what men and women get at work. But still, women are victorious in each work they do. Women are not safe in their surroundings so the workplace is also a part of the surrounding in which she stays and if we talk about safety at workplace then there is not one thing to stress on but multiple things.
One of the shameful challenges a woman faces in the workplace is Sexual Harassment, some or other ways men in that workplace try to harass women not only physically but mentally torture them and make them do all the work. Some woman knows and they stand up for themselves and other women colleagues around them, so they should be aware of laws to protect them.
Women face many threats of physical assault, abuse at their workplace, and so it’s not safe for a woman to work because it affects her as an individual. They already face other problems like unequal pay, eve-teasing, etc. The company mentions that women are fully safe but under that roof still in current times, they are unsafe. There was a myth that according to era, times everything will be right in each term but still in this century women face many problems at home, surrounding and also at their workplace, she is neither safe during working.Time passes very quickly and change over time is important . Along with those changes, we should also bring changes in ourselves regularly . A lot things are changed over time, people have changed, their way of life has changed, the relationship has changed, the way of seeing life has changed but the thing that has not changed till date is – Profanity and the kind of exploitation that happens to women .
Yes, it is true that there has been a lot of difference between earlier times and now. IN the past, girls were not given such importance , they felt that it was okay for the girls to not go out, the girls did not have the right to take their decision, they were not give too much freedom to the girls, for them girls have to do house chores . But now people have changed their thinking, girls have also got the power of independence and decision making but still parents not want to send girls out. The most important reason for this is the present-day environment, yes in earlier time the thinking of people is very backward and poor for girls specially but with the development of thinking the atmosphere is become worse . The fear of today’s parents is nowadays the cases of girls has gone so much and the girl is not safe anywhere, wherever she goes people see her with dirty eyes . Now see how the girls are harassed in the office, the girls are teased, Boss do not talk well with their female employees, see them in a dirty . In the name of overtime in the office, the bosses stop their female employee and then sexually harass them and then she decide to leave that place . There are many women who have to work due to the conditions of their home and they get a job in some place where the environment is very bad for the girls, but due to the helplessness of work and money, she can not leave that place nor do anything . At work a woman is mentally sexually tortured .
Yes , for the protection of women in the workplace there were many laws was formed they were like :-
1- The Prohibition of Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, 2013
2- Women and The Labour Laws
But in some way these laws were useless . As many of the women are unaware about this somehow a woman rise her voice against this she is mentally torture by the higher authorities because of her family advises her to take her complaint back leave that place .
A woman is not say at any of the place weather it be her home , working place or in the society . Yes , the country is changed , the people has changed and the mentality of people is also change and become worse.Though government does whatever possible to maintain safety for women at workplace, harrassments and bullying at workplace is not stopped. Women are afraid to complain and voice out about the struggle they go through. This is only reason for harrassment at workplace to continue. Women are bullied, bodyshamed, harassed and blackmailed with the reasons of firing out of job. But women do not voice out thinking about their reputation, being fired and family situations. Most of the women work to feed their family and so the work seems more important to them. Keeping this on mind they do not voice out. But women must be bold and brave facing anything and everything she goes through.
No matter how hard we harp on about the progress we have made on paper, in terms of gender equality, the sad reality stands that even after 70 years of Independence, we have not been able to create a safe working place for our women. Despite the passing of the landmark judgment Vishaka vs State, by our Honorable Supreme Court of India, the guidelines have just been on paper and the women continue to be exploited at the workplace. First of all, they have to face the challenge to achieve basic education and sparse career choices. After they have crossed all the hurdles, they have to face the predatory environment of the work. Right from low wages, to sexual exploitation, they have to face many challenges. Even after they have somehow managed to do their work at the office, they have them to look after the house and all the household responsibilities. In terms of workload, they are under so much pressure that it affects their mental health.
The main issue with the problem lies in the fact that we don’t have efficient and effective legal policies in place. No doubt there are laws that care for the protection of women in the workplace, the reality is that they are hardly used because the whole legal process is very cumbersome. They generally do not raise their voice because they fear that they might lose the job or their family would not be allowed them to continue the job. We don’t have any mechanism to protect their jobs when a woman raises a complaint against the exploiter. If they raise the complaint, then they have to face the prospect of losing their job. We have to make women-friendly laws and procedures in order to help them to take legal actions.
After that, we have to ensure that the gender divide for gender roles that still continuing from ancient times needs to be changed. We have to realize that a working woman is not only responsible for taking care of the home. The male partner should also lend a helping hand towards them, they have to take equal responsibilities also. Lastly, we must ensure that women suffering from mental health issues are given proper platforms for health.I think women are much safer in current times than before . I do agree to the point that some women faces safety issues at workplace. Still we are leading towards a better place in terms of safety purpose. We are growing as a society where women don’t look here and there to feel safe. She is capable enough of handling the situations and circumstances comes within the safety.
Entertainment industry has raised many issues faced by women at workplace which were never discovered before. There are some movements, social cause and NGOs working towards the mission to abolish the issues with their exceptional team and plans.
Most of the women feel safe at their workplace until there is some weird guys who want to make women feel uncomfortable with their act and obnoxious behavior or conversation. No place is dirty unless there is a dirt. So punish them with the proper actions being charged at them.
Some men in current times are so protected and concerned about the women safety, sometimes they go out of their way to help them. We also need to inculcate this kind of gesture in our future kids.
There are women out there who are more than happy to help the other women’s especially young ones, if they faced any kind of issues regarding their safety. They even guide them with appropriate knowledge like how to behave and how to tackle everything.
Due to developed technologies, fortunately we have been provided by some numbers to call whenever we have safety related issues and the help is been provided immediately.
Women are now being taught self-defence at every age and especially schools and some organizations are conducting classes to make young girls learn self-defence at younger age to train them and to make them believe that their safety lies in their hand and not on others.
This generation is foresighted to make women feel safe everywhere on their own terms rather than depending on other means. We should stop making women gain sympathize in every matter rather make them strong to fight on their own.How Safe Are Women At Their Workplace in Current Time?
In the current social setting of our environment, women are not safe anywhere. There is some sort of misogyny in the air and women can sense it, which is why they feel insecure and unsafe everywhere. When certain women do not feel safe at home, what is a workplace then? Hence, I would say, women are not safe even at their workplaces in the current time. A number of cases of crimes against women at their workplace or office place are reported every day. The culprits are usually bosses, or male colleagues or even the working staff at times.
It’s not only the number of rapidly increasing rape cases or molestation incidents that make women unsafe at their work places, but also the kind of sight of certain men, their behavior, their inappropriate touch, unnecessary preferences, etc. At times, senior male colleagues tend to use women in a sexual way to promote them in their workspace. When women deny serving to these sick-minded men, they prefer manhandling women, molesting them and in certain cases, these incidents end up in taking some or the other person’s lives too.
Why does a woman need to show her feminineness, womanliness and body in order to save herself from any sort of loss or demotion in her workspace? No matter which field of work a woman chooses, there always lies a doubt in her head that even if she is in an enclosed space with a number of people around her, will it be safe for her? At times, when crimes are reported without witnesses, it is because the criminals force their junior employees to keep their mouth zipped otherwise they might lose their jobs. There exists a lot of perversion in a lot of minds which one cannot judge by just seeing people.
It is just hopeless to see our women suffer in each and every corner of our society, our environment, our structured buildings and markets, workspaces, shopping malls, movie theatres and sports complexes, religious areas too. Let us pledge to free India from this parasite living in the minds of or society’s people.
A woman myself,
Shubhangini Shaktawat
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