Day 6: Is Justice Too Distant? Report Presentation and Discussion

 [This blog report was contributed by Bruno Richardson of Gram Vaani who generously shared his meticulous minutes with us.]

The objective of the Meeting

As part of The Prajnya Trust’s "16 Days activism against Gender Violence," Gram Vaani, Prajnya & TLRF (Tamil Nadu Labour Rights Federation) invited Tamil Nadu State Women Commission (TNSWC) Chairperson, District Social Welfare Officers (DSWO), and Members of Local Committee for online consultation on Making Local Committees Functional across Tamil Nadu on 30th November 2021.

Meeting Proceedings

The meeting was preceded by Com. Sudaroli from Prajnya Trust and then followed by a presentation from TLRF and Gram Vaani where it exhibited the works that have been undertaken as part of the campaign to strengthen the Local Committee across Tamil Nadu.

Campaign Presentation

Com. Richardson from Gram Vaani presented a detailed presentation on what pushed the organizations to begin a campaign on Local Committee (Committee to redress sexual harrasment at the unorganized workplace) and the various stages that the campaign has traveled and what it strives to achieve. Please find a brief report on the presentation below

• TLRF and Gram Vaani are existing partners who work for the welfare of the laborers working in the unorganized, spinning mill, firecrackers, and match stick industries. By deploying IVR (Interactive Voice Response) technology GV and TLRF have established a community media platform called Namma Kural. Through this awareness created on the workplace entitlements of the laborers.
• People working in the unorganized sector register and voice out their grievances on sexual harrasment at the workplace in the IVR platform. To address these grievances we explored the existing redressal mechanism and we identified that the existing committee has not been functional and it has not served its purpose
• -This pushed us to initiate a campaign by bringing in various stakeholders (NGOs, Government agencies, Researchers, Labour Unions...etc) to make the committees functional.
• 
  The campaign had traveled through various stages. Beginning from collecting data through RTI, doing Survey with unorganized women labors (Quantitative Study), Interviews with women Labourers (Qualitative Study), Consultation with stakeholders to propose recommendations to the government, and then finally sharing our findings and proposing the recommendations to the women commission and district social welfare officer through this event.  

Then Com. Priya, President of TLRF shared the union officials’ experience in Interviewing with unorganized laborers and she said that the interview with the women laborers helped them to understand their work environment better. She also said that the survey results mentioned that about 80 percent of the women have not experienced sexual harrasment in the workplace but the interview with women laborers has helped them to expose the ground realities and found that almost all the women interviewed had experienced some form of harrasment at the workplace.

Com. Jayasudha, Treasurer of TLRF shared the recommendations gathered from the previous consultation with various stakeholders (Unions, Advocates, Professors, Researchers, NGOs) and requested the government officials to implement these recommendations.

(To know about the results of each stage of the campaign click here)

Following the presentation Com. Gowri, Chairperson, Tamil Nadu State Women Commission shared her thoughts on the campaign and how we can ensure a harassment-free workplace for women. Some of the points that she shared during the meeting

She began her speech by quoting, “Real Injustice happens when Justice gets delayed’. Begin a lawyer she said there is ample law in our constitution which gives solution to all harassment and violence against women. But it is the implementation part that we really lack. Government officials, the Police departments are also one of the reasons for the lack of implementation of these laws. 

• She emphasized the implementation of these laws and it is our collective responsibility to monitor and make sure these laws are being served their purpose
• Com. Gowri also requested the event organizers to share all the recommendations to  the women commission which they will forward to the State Government following which these recommendations can be implemented
• When requested about the list of LC officials across the state com. Gowri has assured her support that the commission will share these details with us
• She also offered her support for our campaign and has agreed to work with us in addressing issues on sexual harassment across the state. She insisted that we file harrasment cases with the women’s commission so that the commission will also follow up on it and following which the government officials hold accountable for the reporting on the grievances to the commission.
• She also said the commission will support the event organizers in creating awareness on sexual harrasment at a workplace with the women laborers and she also asked her to invite her for the awareness meetings with women.

Com. Poongothai - Erode District Social Welfare Officer

Com. Poongothai thanked the organizers for the detailed research on LC and said that the research will help them to implement and further take up the functioning of the committee in the Erode District. She also invited all the NGO’s and Labour Unions to work with the district welfare department in creating awareness on sexual harrasment committee among women laborers 

Com. Indira Jayasheely - Virudhunagar District Social Welfare Officer

-       Com. Indira from Virudhunagar District shared about the works they are currently carrying out in the Virudhunagar district. She said the department is creating awareness among firecrackers/ Match stick/ Spinning mill industry women workers and also insisting factory owners implement sexual harassment committee in the workplace. Besides this, she also said they are creating awareness on 181 - toll-free no to report violence against women, across the district

-   And besides this, our department is also working on installing complaint boxes in district collectorate, Railway/bus Station, Government offices to make sure women report issues when such incidents occur

Com. Rega J Deeb - Dindigul District Social Welfare Officer

-       Com. Rega the Dindigul District Social Welfare Officer said that the department is currently focused on ensuring the LC and IC (internal Committee) is formed and its members are renewed and make sure the committee is updated

-       She emphasized that there is a need for more awareness among the women workers on these committees.

-       She said that when we review the sexual harrasment committee we do not see any cases being reported in it and this is due to the lack of awareness among the women workers to report issues in the committee. To address this we are creating awareness among the women workers

-       Besides this, she shared that her department is currently working on insisting all the factories especially the spinning mill factories to implement these committees inside the factory.

-       Finally, she said her department is ready to collaborate with the NGO’s, Labour Unions to implement the redressal committees and also requested the need of guidance from these stakeholders for the better implementation & functioning of these committees 

Com. Alagesan - Local Complaint Committee Member, Madurai District

-       Mr. Alagesan applauded the works of TLRF for the campaign that they have initiated on strengthening the Local Committee across the state

-       Mr. Alagesan said there is a need for creating awareness among the women laborers and also there is a high need for the government to create awareness among Grass root level officials and panchayat leaders. Since our districts are huge in landscape it becomes difficult for women to travel from one place to another for reporting issues on sexual harrasment and this is also one of the factors for women not reporting

-       To address this the government must form committees and make sure the grassroots level officials and stakeholders are well informed and trained in handling these issues

-       He also said the government must be very transparent in these matters with respect to publicizing the details of the committees and their members to the public. Based on this Mr. Alagesan also requested the women commission chairperson to provide details of the local complaint committee members across the state.

Com. Palani Bharathi - Pen Thozhilar Sangam

-       Com. Palani Bharathi from Pen Thozhilar Sangam (PTS) shared the experience of the PTS union in handling workplace sexual harassment grievance and how the government officials delayed the process even after receiving the court judgment and so she said there is an urgent need for the proper and speedy implementation of law and provide justice to the victims

Following the speeches by important stakeholders Com. Ponnuchamy the state advisor of TLRF summarised the event and thanked the state women commission chairperson for accepting our invitation and supporting our cause in strengthening the Local Committee across the state.

To know more about how the campaign was shaped up and rolled out with the collaboration of various stakeholders click here. To read the complete report click here for Tamil & English.