Harassment of women at workplace needs to be addressed: IIPA workshop

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Harassment of women at workplace needs to be addressed: IIPA workshop

Jammu Tawi, June 18

The J&K Regional Branch of Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA) organized a one-day workshop on "Preventing Harassment of women at workplace" at the IIPA seminar hall, Gujjar Nagar Bridge here. According to a press release issued by IIPA, work place harassment, intimidation, bullying or coercion including that of a sexual nature is becoming common as more and more women are coming out of their houses to work. In this regard, it is very important to spread awareness among the working class, both men and women, regarding the workplace harassment and its preventions.  The one-day workshop was attended by over 30 mid-level officers of Jammu and Kashmir government and private sector etc and was held in three sessions. Professor Poonam Dhawan, Director, Centre for Women's Studies, University of Jammu who is an authority on women's issues and has done considerable work on preventing sexual harassment was the key speaker on the occasion. Dr. Savita Nayar, Senior Assistant Professor, Department of Law, University of Jammu deliberated in detail on "Constitutional equality and Vishakha judgment: Supreme Court guidelines" while eminent educationist and women rights activists Prof Rita Jitendra, former Secretary, J&K Academy of Art, Culture and Languages threw light on various dimensions of workplace harassment.  Dr. Kavita Suri, Assistant Director, Department of Lifelong Learning, University of Jammu made a presentation on "Infamous harassment cases against women in India". An important aspect of the workshop was the screening of two highly acclaimed documentary films. The first documentary film entitled "Can't Take It Any More" by Meenakshi Rai focused on sexual harassment of women in the workplace and exposes the negative attitudes of some prestigious organizations in our cities. The film which has won many awards is a Public Service Broadcasting Trust production. It is also a story about how the society still needs to change its mindset, and a story about the struggle of the people who felt the pangs of it all and are fighting tooth and nail against it; a revelation about the society we live in, and a step towards making it better. The second short film screened was "Take Your Hands Off Me" also gave a subtle message against workplace harassment. The workshop had an open session entitled "Women's place and space in an organization" in which all the panelists and participating had a freewheeling session on this sensitive issue. The branch has organized a large number of seminars, symposia, conferences, workshops, lectures on burning issues and topics of contemporary relevance besides training programmes for the last more than three decades. IIPA has also a rich pool of expertise of civil servants, professional's entrepreneurs, engineer and academicians who have made noteworthy contributions in their respective fields of expertise.