KARACHI, July 15: At least 78 per cent of women working in different sectors, including domestic workers, face sexual harassment of one form or another, a report revealed.
The report, compiled by Zeenat Hisam, a researcher in labour issues, said that women working in hospitals, banks, offices, factories, brick kilns and private homes (as domestic workers) faced sexual harassment of different forms.
Home-based women, contrary to prevalent perceptions, it said, do not fare much better. The 2005 survey indicated that 25 per cent of home-based women workers faced harassment (psychological, verbal, sexual, physical) by customers (44pc), family members (42pc) and middlemen (15pc).
Sexual harassment includes a whole gamut of uncalled for acts, ranging from indecent verbal remarks to physical contact to rape. It cuts across sectors, occupations and positions of the affected at the workplace.
The incidents of the worst form of sexual harassment (forced sex and rape) are high in sectors where women workers are most vulnerable due to poverty and debt, as is the case in brick kilns, tenant farming and domestic labour.
“Till today there is no legislation against sexual harassment at (the) workplace. Sections 294, 350 and 509 of (the) Pakistan Penal Code deal with sexual harassment but do not focus on the workplace,” said the report.
Unofficial estimates put the figure of home-based women workers in the informal sector as 75pc of the total informal labour force. Official data does not include the category ‘home-based.’
In another recent study on home-based work in four hazardous occupations (agarbatti-making, prawn-shelling, carpet weaving and sack stitching) 34.7pc women reported negative health impacts (skin diseases, respiratory and musculo-skeletal problems) and 28.pc reported fatigue.
Labour laws in Pakistan do not apply to home-based work and have not been amended unlike India, where the Minimum Wage Act has been extended to cover some sections of home-based workers.
The report said in 2002, eight NGOs formed the Alliance Against Sexual Harassment at the Workplace and with multi-stakeholder consultations and technical input from the ILO, evolved a code of conduct against sexual harassment.
“The code was redrafted and the word ‘sexual harassment’ was replaced with ‘gender justice’ in the title (because of) pressure (from) government officials and the male-dominated WEBCOP (Workers Employers Bilateral Council of Pakistan),” said the report.
By July 2005, the Code of Conduct for Gender Justice at the Workplace was voluntarily adopted by 269 local and international companies in the country and by 10 trade unions. The code was envisaged to be supplemented with legislation in the future.
In October 2006 the government announced that an amendment to Section 2(b) in the Removal from Service (Special Powers) Ordinance 2000 had been approved. The amendment included sexual harassment at the workplace in the definition of ‘misconduct.’ When made statutory, the clause would lead to dismissal, removal and compulsory retirement, and/or minor penalties to those accused of sexual harassment in public institutions.
Source: Dawn
Date:7/16/2007
