On November 30, scheduled for perhaps the biggest event of the campaign; we set out amid slightly heavy rain to Manapakkam, to set up for the consultation on women and work. A good 2 hours later, we were all assembled and ready to start. This consultation was done in partnership with Sujata Mody and Penn Thozhilalar Sangam (Women Workers' Union), and brought together women from various sectors: white collar workers, garment industry workers, academicians, journalists, filmmakers and lawyers. We started off with a brilliant keynote by Dr. Kalpana Karunakaran delivered in Tamil; which started off with a history of women and work, and moved on to the biases, stereotypes and challenges a woman faces within and outside the workplace. She also covered issues that crop up due to the intersectionality of caste and class; and quotes case studies from developed countries as well.After the keynote, we divided up into groups to share experiences of being in the workplace. This involved women of different sectors coming together to share and understanding issues faced by their counterparts in other industries.
Moving surprisingly ahead of time, we broke for lunch where we were able to find a more informal setting to interact. After a light lunch, we set our groups down again to discuss about points and agendas which can apply to women workers across sectors, from which would evolve a solidarity manifesto which can be taken forward. The three groups came up with a wide variety of important issues, including but not limited to: sanitation and hygiene at the workplace, working and clean bathrooms, exploitation across sectors, sexual harassment, union memberships, whether unions in corporate spheres are viable, mutual learning and benefits for domestic workers.
We developed a common charter from the concerns, experiences and issues expressed by everyone, as a conclusion to the day long consultation.
Read Archana Seker's article on the event here.
-
Malavika
No comments:
Post a Comment