Slow progress to creating a safe workplace for women

Source: The Hindu

  • Prelims: Sexual harassment act PLFS, IPC, National Crime Record Bureau etc
  • Mains GS Paper I and II: Vulnerable sections of society, Laws, institutions and bodies constituted for the protection and betterment of vulnerable sections of society etc

ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS

  • The recent case of allegations of sexual harassment some of India’s sportswomen (wrestling) have faced.
    • 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.

INSIGHTS ON THE ISSUE

Context

Sexual harassment:

Sexual harassment Act:

 

Vishaka guidelines:

Structural violence, data on workforce

  • Violence, in the form of sexual harassment at the workplace, is:
    • direct
  • Enabling the 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.
  • Employment imbalance prevalent between men and women, in the organized and unorganized sectors.
  • The Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) annual report(2020-21):
    • It shows that the participation of women in the total labor force grew.
    • Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) has gradually increased from 5(seventeen point five)% in 2017-18 to 25.1(twenty five point one)% in 2020-21.
    • Worker Population Ratio (WPR) from 16.5% in 2017-18 to 24.2% in 2020-21.
  • The LFPR and WPR data published in the latest Quarterly Bulletin (April-June 2022) are not encouraging.

Challenges for women:

  • The absence of an enabling and safe working environment.
  • Most women do not complain of sexual harassment and the current redress mechanism is either non-existent or ineffective.
  • Women are more vulnerable to exploitation by their employer as they can be easily threatened with their job continuity for indecent favors.

What steps need to be taken?

  • The employer needs to ensure that the working environment is safe and women friendly.
  • It is essential to fix goals to improve the workplace environment for women.
    • The short-term goals:
      • Providing the requisite women-friendly infrastructure
      • The constitution of internal complaint committees
      • Spreading of awareness about the law and procedure of grievance redress.
    • Medium-term goals:
      • Increase of female participation in the labor force
      • Improvement of tooth-to-tail ratio
      • 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.

LFPR:

  • It is defined as the percentage of persons in the labor force among the persons in population (i.e., both employed and unemployed or seeking employment)

WPR:

  • It is the percentage of persons employed among the persons in the population.

 

Way Forward

  • The numbers matter when it comes to power emanating from the majority.
    • One musters courage to voice one’s grievance when there are sufficient numbers in support of the affected person.
  • Much would depend on the tooth-to-tail ratio of any organization.
    • When the number of women in leadership positions is enough.
      • It generates confidence in subordinate women.
    • 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.
    • Theory of criminology known as ‘nature versus nurture: 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 child on a 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.
    • 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.

QUESTION FOR PRACTICE

Q. Discuss the desirability of greater representation to women in the higher judiciary to ensure diversity, equity and inclusiveness.(UPSC 2021) (200 WORDS, 10 MARKS)