The writer is a lawyer by profession. She is also a social scientist and human rights activists
Less than a month agoNandini Sahai, director of International Centre Goa, (ICG) stated inher address at the regional seminar on ‘Gender discrimination atworkplace: Myth or reality,’ that “In an age where we talk aboutequal rights for men and women, there are still instances of peoplebeing discriminated against because of their gender.” Almost everyparticipant present felt that it was high time Goans stopped buryingtheir heads like ostriches in the sand, pretending all is fine, whenwith decades of struggle among the feminist groups in Goa, cases ofsexual harassment continue to cast a shadow on women in this state.
Three months ago DySPShamba Sawant a senior officer of the Goa Police was suspended by theHome Ministry after charges of sexual harassment against him wereproved after an enquiry. In her complaint the lady officer statedthat she was harassed not only at her workplace but even while shewas on leave. When she ignored the officer after joining back onduty, he hit her on the head with a file on the staircase. Upsetwith this, she informed her husband who advised her to complain toher seniors.
Ironically, women facestiff opposition most often from their own when they attempt toreport the incident. If she tries to inform her superior of thesame, she is advised by the superior not to complain and she isassured that such incident will not happen again. Every boss isleast interested in the dignity of the women in his organisation andmost interested in protecting the goodwill of the workplace. Herco-workers will neither support nor encourage her to report theincident, under the pretext that it will adversely affect the familyof the perpetrator.
Last year, in one ofGoa’s biggest public sector undertakings, the accused, who was avery senior manager pleaded in his reply that compassion should beshown to him as if he was dismissed it would affect his retirementbenefits. The lady who complained was put through tremendouspressure from her women colleagues to have pity on him, when the sameperson had in fact sexually assaulted many of them. Today, after asuccessful inquiry by the committee the officer has only beentransferred. The same was the case when a college librarian in Goacomplained of sexual harassment by a lower staff. She wascontinuously put under pressure that the ‘poor man’ many lose hisretirement benefits if she pursued her complaint. This is howseveral cases of sexual abuse get swept under the carpet and gounreported with the perpetrator continuing his crime. The same canbe seen happening in corporate offices and the industrial estates inGoa. Local newspapers in Goa have also had cases of sexual harassmentfiled against senior staff.
In 2010 the GoaUniversity, which also has a number of cases of sexual harassmentreported from its employees, came out with a document called “GoaUniversity Policy (Preventive and Remedial) on Sexual Harassment ofWomen at the work place 2010”. The said document came out afterthe head of the department of Political Science Aureliano Fernandeswas dismissed from service on April 8, 2010 after students of hisdepartment alleged sexual harassment by him.
