KARACHI: Laws being made to check harassment of women
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, June 23: Sindh women development minister, Dr Saeeda Malik, has said that the government is formulating laws to check harassment or victimization of women.
She was addressing at the inauguration of a three-day national seminar on “Working Women”, organized jointly by the Pakistan National Federation of Trade Unions and American Center for International Labour Solidarity on Monday. The speakers included Syed Hakim Ali Shah Bokhari of the National Institute of Labour Administration Training (NILAT), U R Usmani of the Workers Employers Bilateral Council of Pakistan (WEBCOP), Fatima Hassan from SESSI, Uroos-i-Sehar from the Working Women Support Centre, Zulaikha Zar and Abdul Ghafoor Baloch from the PNFTU and others.
Dr Malik said that the government was also taking steps to make the working atmosphere congenial for the women workers. She said that despite various types of harassment at workplace, women face all such challenges and work efficiently.
She opined that if the environment at their workplace was made women-friendly, they would be able to work with peace of mind, which would result in increased productivity.
The minister said that women were making a substantial contribution towards the economy of Pakistan, which could be multiplied if environment at workplace was improved.
Other speakers at the seminar said that a very few women were the members of trade unions. In this scenario, they said, unions usually did not take interest in solving problems being faced by women workers. The speakers urged worker unions to encourage women to join them.
They said that no country could progress, if half of its population (women) was deprived of its due rights.
Pointing out the scarcity of women hostels, they demanded the construction of women hostels so that working women coming from other towns and remote areas could get safe shelter while working in cities.
It was also suggested that the number of day care centres be increased so that the working women could keep their kids at these centres during office hours.
They also suggested that more stringent laws be formulated to counter the growing menace of sexual harassment of women at the workplace. They urged the women not to be silent, but raise hue and cry, whenever indecent advances were made so that the culprits could immediately be identified and punished.
The speakers were of the view that a large number of women had been elected to the parliament, it would be comparatively easier to formulate women-friendly laws. They also urged the women legislators to rise above the party affiliations and join hands and take unified stand, whenever an issue relating to women came under discussion in the House.
The government, they said, had carried out various social welfare schemes for women. Some of such benefits to women workers are: sickness benefits; injury benefits; maternity benefits; disablement gratuity; disablement pension; survivors pensions; and iddat benefits; etc.
At the seminar, which will continue for three days, subjects that would came under discussion include social protection for women with special reference to social security scheme; ILO Conventions, recommendations and laws concerning working women; sexual harassment and women’s specific problems; trade union rights and duties of working women; decent work and its implementation in Pakistan; code of conduct for gender justice at workplace; elimination of all forms of discrimination against women; impact of globalization on women workers; income generation scheme for women; invisible working force; etc.
Washington-based ACILS representative Timothy J Ryan, and William Conklin from Sri Lanka will attend the seminar, which is being attended by over 35 women representatives of various trade unions affiliated with PNFTU from all over the country.
