Punjab

Safeguarding workplaces: Harassment awareness project launched

Managements will be told to provide environment free of sexual harassment.

Our Correspondent January 07, 2015

She said that the districts administrations and the departments concerned would cooperate with the volunteers in carrying out the outreach campaign of awareness. ILLUSTRATION: TALHA KHAN

LAHORE: The Women Ombudsperson Office has launched a Harassment Awareness Volunteer Programme (HAVP) in the province, Punjab Ombudswoman Dr Mira Phailbus said on Wednesday.

“The project aims at empowering and protecting working women and raising mass awareness about their rights under the Protection Against Harassment of Women at Work Place Act 2012,” the ombuswoman said. She was talking to a group of working women.

The initiative has been launched under the auspices of the Women Development Department in 36 districts of province.

“The Women Ombudsperson Office is disseminating information among working women about their legal rights. We want them to report their grievances of sexual harassment to the authorities concerned. We want to inform the managements of their responsibility to provide an environment free of sexual harassment at the workplace. HAVP has been successfully launched in Layyah, Muzaffargarh and Okara,” she said.

“Under the project, 20 volunteers in each district will be trained. They will then visit 30 work places, such as banks, hospitals, factories and colleges and inform the staff of the Women’s Protection Act and the management of their responsibility for creating an environment free of sexual harassment,” she said.

“It has been observed that most working women in public and private sectors are unaware of their rights or protection against harassment under the law. They do not know what type of behaviour at the workplace amounts to sexual harassment and how to seek a legal remedy. They are totally unaware of the legal mechanism available for them to get justice from the inquiry committees at the department, districts and organisation level,” she said.

She said that the districts administrations and the departments concerned would cooperate with the volunteers in carrying out the outreach campaign of awareness. She said that a seminar would be held on January 10 at Arts Council, Sahiwal, about the issue of harassment.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 8^th, 2014.