Khalida Niaz
PESHAWAR: Laws have been enacted in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to protect the working women from harassment, but most women seem to be unaware about these laws.
Under the existing law framed in 2010, every government and private institution is bound to form a three-member committee comprising at least one woman to hear complaints of harassment. Institutions are also bound to create awareness among female workers about harassment laws, but in most institutions, this law is not being acted upon.
Kainat, a teacher at a private school, said she doesn’t know about utility of the law against harassment. She told TNN that there is no such committee to probe harassment cases in her school or any other school and female teachers don’t know how to react if any harassment incident happens with them. She said she is fortunate that no such incident has happened with her, but she hears about such incidents with other teachers every now and then. She said the government should create awareness in this regard as such incidents are on the rise.
Under the law, the committee will probe harassment cases within one month and its decision will be implemented within seven days. Nida, a worker at an NGO, said she is well aware about the law, but no such committee exists in her organization. She told TNN that some organizations have constituted these committees, but it is more important that women know about proper utilization of the law.
“There are many kinds of harassment besides sexual harassment. Sometimes bosses put extra work burden on women workers to harass them to succumb to their immoral demands,” she said.
Provincial Ombudsperson Rakhshanda Naz said any inappropriate action, sharing of pornographic material, use of inappropriate words etc come under harassment and women can report such incidents. She also said that asking personal questions from women, doing inappropriate acts with body before women, inviting women for food or giving them gifts without consent, coming too close to women while talking to them and sending text messages and scolding them despite good performance also come under the category of harassment.
Why women not reporting harassment cases?
Nida said many women decide against reporting harassment because they fear losing their job. She said the women must be assured that their jobs and dignity will remain intact if they file harassment complaints and they will get full support from government.
Rakhshanda Naz said women are now increasingly raising their voice against harassment. She said 69 harassment complaints have been filed with the Provincial Ombudsperson so far in which six cases have been decided. She said committees against harassment are being formed in different institutions and training for such committees is also being arranged. She said 110 such committees have been nominated in seven districts and two trainings have also been arranged for them.
How anti-harassment law was enacted?
The law to protect women against harassment was enacted after 10-year struggle by some women.
Mehargarh Chairperson Maleeha Hussain said her institution was working on this law since 2000. She said the institution is working on creation of awareness among the women about the importance of the law. She said that 20 years ago, no one even had the courage to use the word of sexual harassment, but now the situation is quite different and women are increasingly using this law to report harassment cases.
Maleeha said Mehargarh has worked with the government for formation of the law. She said it is the responsibility of the government to create awareness among the women about the law.
