“I FEEL very uncomfortable when the male laboratory assistant in our university tries to touch and stand close to me while assisting me during practical work,” confides a girl student, seeking counselling. A boy student also writes, in a letter, that he is being harassed by his teacher at the university.

Harassment at public places like markets and bus stops is very common but harassment at workplace is something which inhibits employees, especially female, and many have to quit jobs due to fear of dishonouring their family.

It has only been a month that Alliance Against Sexual Harassment (Aasha), a non-governmental organisation, opened its office in Peshawar. Since then it has received 11 complaints of men and women about how they face sexual harassment at public places and workplaces.

“We are receiving such complaints from universities, health and education departments. Surprisingly, the complainants are both male and female .We have received many complaints from university students,” says Khushid Bano, volunteer coordinator of Aasha in Peshawar.

She says that they have provided counselling to the harassed women so that they would not quit their jobs and repel the harassing person by showing confidence.

A new law passed by the government in March this year ‘Protection Against Harassment of Women At Workplace Act 2010’ is hope for women, who are harassed at workplaces. An amendment in Section 509 of Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) can also help such women. It says whoever intending to insult the modesty of any woman, utters any word, make any sound or gesture or exhibit any object intending that such word or sound shall be heard by such woman or intrudes upon the privacy of the such woman shall be punished with imprisonment which may extend to three years or a fine up to Rs500,000 or with both.

The new law binds every organisation to constitute an inquiry committee within 30 days of the enactment of this Act to probe the complaints under this law.

Although every law binds government to extend it to the whole of Pakistan and ‘shall come into force at once’ but in fact non-implementation of laws is a great problem and perhaps this new law has somewhat not been taken seriously as even many government departments have not yet formulated the committees or adopted the code so that any employee facing harassment could find justice at once, legal experts say.“The amendment in PPC Section 509 would help those women, who are harassed at public places like bus stops and markets, but they have to go to police to file their complaint,” says Bilal Khan, a lawyer and legal adviser of Aasha.

Police need to be trained and made aware of this law, he says.

Khushid Bano says that women and girls, who are harassed at their workplace, universities or public places, need to speak about it. If they remain scared and don’t complain against it every effort is useless.

However, legal experts also point out that the inquiry committees, which are to be set up in every organisation still don’t exist in many Harassment at workplace continues even after passage of law  departments. Many women, who are facing this problem, are also not aware of this law.

“We have met the higher education minister and stressed the need for setting up such committee so that females in education sector could file their complaints. He promised us that he would implement it,” Ms Bano says.

Some banks have already set up such committees but health and education sectors where mostly female work still have to implement this law in letter and spirit.

From Nov 25 to Dec10, women rights organisations observed 15 days of activism of violence against women and expressed concern that violence against women was growing in society. Harassment of women is one of the worst forms of violence.

Interviews with working women reveal that most females of every class and age face harassment at some point, somewhere in her entire life but often it is taken lightly by others when she complains. Women fear to raise this stigmatised issue as they don’t get support from family and colleagues.

“My colleagues told me harassment was even a problem in western and developed countries. So I should not make a fuss about it when I told them about a harassment incident at a bus stop,” a woman, who works at a bank, says.

A law has been passed to provide women some protection at work and public places but the purpose would be achieved only when the law is implemented, every organisation adopts the code and sets up committees to hear complaints of women employees and provide them justice.

Police also need to be made aware of the amendment in Section 509 of PPC so that they also take serious action on incidents of harassments of women at public places. If government shows seriousness in implementing this law, non-government sector would also follow, Ms Bano says. But so far they have got only assurances from district and provincial officials in this regard.

In a society where women are symbolised with honour, much is needed to be done in practical to ensure her honour remains intact and such can be done by punishing those who violate it.