Sexual harassment in universities

Pakistan today is waking up to the realities of sexual harassment of women — and sometimes men — in all walks of life, from the workplace to the home and places of recreation and education. It is the latter that is attracting comment recently, with now at least four harassment cases surfacing at Karachi University (KU) in recent weeks. These are probably the tip of the proverbial iceberg. In the light of these alleged cases the KU has announced that a harassment watch committee is to be constituted in each department and that a complaint box would be placed in the Vice-Chancellors Secretariat. There will in each case be a three-member committee led by the chairperson of a department or the director of an institute. These will also include the two most senior male and female professors.

In principle this would appear to be a welcome and timely move, the biggest question being why it had not happened before when the problem of sexual harassment has been well known for decades. There is however a significant caveat. Any referral agency be it workplace harassment or, as is now also to the fore, the sexual abuse of children, has to have the confidence and trust of those that seek to refer themselves to it. Further, those that constitute the committee tasked to listen to and then investigate such cases have to have the competencies to do so effectively. These will include counselling skills and an environment of confidentiality that will give confidence and security to the victims of harassment. The structure being proposed is an utilisation of existing authority figures within KU which may seem like a plug-and-play solution.

Where such committees have been formed their success has lain with the fact that they are peer-oriented, if not suitably trained workplace colleagues outside of the power hierarchy then closer to the point of referral than senior management figures. Whilst the initiative is to be applauded, a careful reappraisal of its implementation is recommended.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 22^nd, 2018.

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