[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.
.jpeg)
The discussion began with a short overview of a study conducted on the Level of Awareness on ICC/LCC among women workers, facilitated by the Tamil Nadu Labour Rights Federation (TLRF). TLRF largely works with the unorganised sector, where the ICCs and LCCs are poorly implemented. Gramvaani, a partner of the project, tried to take this campaign to a larger audience. Richardson, of the organisation, mentioned that, initially while the issue was brought to the forefront, there was no data to supplement the same. Post this, testimonials were collected from labourers and a survey was shared in 2020 to serve the purpose outlined earlier. The survey results showed that 27% of the respondents were construction workers, followed by 22.7% engaged in the agricultural sector, under the MNREGA. The responses showed that 80.5% of the respondents had not faced harassment in their workplace. This was a contradiction to the experiences from the field, where interactions with labourers show instances of harassment (though they may be hesitant to share the same). TLRF also filed RTIs in three districts to know the situation of LCCs and found that of Madurai, Virudhunagar and Dindugal, only the district administration of Dindugal provided details of the LCC. During the course of the discussion, Latha from Dharmagiri district also highlighted the experiences of women engaged in several unorganised sectors (construction, garment, health workers and women working in pharmacies) with respect to workplace sexual harassment. Additionally, she also highlighted the experiences of students in schools and colleges, particularly during the pandemic..jpeg)
This discussion was followed by Preeti Karmarkar, a Rajaram fellow, who highlighted the functioning of Local Committees in Maharashtra. The study employed using a feminist socio-legal approach to gather data. The striking finding across the entire study area is that there is not one complaint from the unorganised sector in the LCs. The complaints from the organised sector that the LCs have received have been primarily against the employer. When the LCs received complaints, they conducted inquiries and gave recommendations. Additionally, Preeti also highlighted the challenges faced by the LC members, and further explained the methods through which LCs could be strengthened. Dr. Anagha Sarpotdar also supplemented the discussion with her experiences from the field.
