Helpline for women

A law is only worthy if the government guarantees its enforcement, otherwise these are nothing but scraps of paper. In 2011, with the collective attempt of social activists, civil society and women representative organisations, the Protection of Women against Harassment at the Workplace Bill 2011 was approved. For the effective implementation of this law, the Federal Ombudsman Secretariat was also established in Islamabad.

However, the ombudsman failed to implement the law due to complications in the existing system. In the first three years of the ombudsman, only 161 harassment cases were received by the Federal Ombudsman Secretariat. As per province-wise breakdown, 43 harassment cases were from the federal capital, 18 from Punjab, six from Sindh, four from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, three from Balochistan and just one from Fata.

A low number of cases registered doesn’t mean that harassment and violence against women exists at a minor level. As per the office of the ombudsman secretariat, a complicated system, fear of losing jobs, social taboos, unawareness and scarcity of finances are the major reason behind the poor implementation of the law.

Recently, the Punjab government took the initiative to implement the Protection of Women against Harassment at the Workplace and for this purpose, the Punjab Women Development Department has established a helpline with the objective to address problems of women within 24 hours of a complaint.

The service would be functional in all 36 districts of Punjab from 8am to 4pm and women will get guidance related to their everyday problems from the helpline. The districts administration and DCOs at the tehsil level will also be involved to help process the complaints without much hassle.

The aim of linking rural and urban women with necessary government service providers and acquainting them with their rights as laid down in the law, the helpline services will help women lodge complaints in case of sexual harassment. Victims of domestic violence would also be able to get their complaints registered and the office would give full guidance to them.

This move to implement the 2012 law is a positive one. Nonetheless, social taboos and financial scarcity still exist and the Women Development Department of Punjab may face the same issue in its implementation.

The helpline can eradicate the gulf between the women who need urgent help and the government departments and NGOs working for women empowerment but this calls for overhauling of the existing system, a strong awareness campaign and sufficient funds.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 30^th, 2014.