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  Metros   Mumbai  02 Dec 2017  Forum formed to combat harassment at workplace

Forum formed to combat harassment at workplace

THE ASIAN AGE. | UMAKANT DESHPANDE
Published : Dec 2, 2017, 1:57 am IST
Updated : Dec 2, 2017, 1:57 am IST

40,000 Vishakha internal assessment committee members have been trained in the past few months.

In a bid to take on rising instances of crimes against women, the state women’s commission has undertaken a forum called PUSH.
 In a bid to take on rising instances of crimes against women, the state women’s commission has undertaken a forum called PUSH.

Mumbai: In a bid to take on rising instances of crimes against women, the state women’s commission has undertaken a forum called PUSH (People Unity Against Sexual Harassment). Under this, 40,000 Vishakha internal assessment committee members have been trained in the past few months. Among them 16,000 participants were from 3,500 colleges.

“The commission has completed a training of 40,000 members of Vishakha committees, which are compulsory as per Supreme Court orders, in each establishment to prevent sexual harassment of women at the workplace,” Vijaya Rahatkar, chairperson of the state women’s commission, told The Asian Age.

She added, “Crimes against the women are increasing, and there is a fear in the minds of women, especially in Mumbai, about travelling late night or in the wee hours. There are often complaints or instances of sexual harassment at the workplace that are not getting registered. So the state women’s commission has established a forum called ‘PUSH’ through which it is doing various activities.”

Mr Rahatkar said, “We have trained of 40,000 Vishakha committee members out of which 16,000 were from 3,500 colleges across the state, 4,000 were NGO workers and 20,000 were government employees. We have prepared an action plan to train 1.5 lakh Vishakha committee members of all private offices in the next six months. We are training youths on gender bias issues and creating awareness. We have started a survey of the situation and changes that have taken place in those establishments where we have completed trainings.”

Stating that if one was to compare figures of crimes in 20 cities across the country, the situation in Mumbai is better, Ms Rahatkar said, “But crimes against women are high i.e. 12.3 per cent. It is because of awareness created between the women and measures taken by the police to register offences. The percentage of punishment has increased up to 56 per cent because of various steps taken by the state government. Still we have to do more.”

Rahatkar’s suggestions

Special courts need to be established at magistrate, district and high court level, which will try cases of crimes against women specially and women judges must be appointed in those courts. The government should also take care to appoint women officers at each police station and take serious note of complaints registered by women.

Tags: sexual harassment, people unity against sexual harassment