Dignity is my Right

Sound and acknowledged women always have to bear the hard crunch of our society; they go through a lot with resilience to make struggle easy for the forthcoming generations. The progress we are making throughout this century is encouraging more young females towards education and to have an “opinion” isn’t much of an exception. Yet, in Pakistan where the female literacy rate keeps on increasing every year, the basic need for maintaining dignity at the workplace is an unmatched crisis.

A dignified work environment is the basic fundamental right deserved by any employee of the world. Especially when the gender biasness is getting blurred in the progressive world, all and every workforce must be at mental peace, enough to focus on reaping results alone. However, Pakistan falls in the grid of the unlucky underdeveloped countries where women face harassment at the workplace ever so often. In a research conducted by a national newspaper, of 300 women, 58.6 percent of respondents stated that their workplace didn’t take harassment seriously.  

Workplace Harassment is a known phenomenon often brushed under the carpet for ladies who step out of the house for any cause in the world. Some confident females who do stand against it are often left to face the repercussions alone, such as getting fired from the job or being bullied by senior management. Of course, not all hope is lost, some offices have special departments allocated for such cases but most of the time, as stated in the survey, the employees are asked to stay silent about it. 

Most employees are unaware of what a hostile work environment is and they often put up with behaviors that they aren’t liable to according to law. The decree of what comes under harassment is display of offensive material, or persistent unwanted attention; staring or leering; suggestive comments or jokes; sexually explicit pictures or posters; unwanted invitations to go out on dates; requests for sex; intrusive questions about a person's private life or body; unnecessary familiarity, such as deliberately brushing up against a person; insults or taunts based on sex; sexually explicit physical contact; and sexually explicit emails or SMS text messages.

Behavior such as making racist or negative comments can also be construed as workplace harassment. Offensive gestures, drawings, or clothing also constitute harassment and not protesting against such behavior adds to the hostility. The offense is not limited to this but these are often disregarded as casual socialising in a workplace, and women are told that they are making fuss out of nothing or such behavior is common and thus should be ignored.

An empowered woman of the 21^st century; Kashmala Tariq, identified this problem and fought her way through the federal cabinet to establish a proper workplace harassment complaint center. Federal Ombudsperson for Protection against Harassment of Women at the Workplaces (FOSPAH) is the endeavor of the Act of parliament to make provisions for the protection of women against harassment. This institution fills the void present for all the complaints that are unattended or the dismissed cases when the accused is influential enough in the workplace. It takes into account the ease of registering complains through an online procedure and the system is effective enough to resolve cases that are in court proceedings within a month. The lawyer hired is paid by the government and the organisation takes it into great consideration that the harassed employee is not further bothered or pressurised by anyone to take back the case. Trained staff present at the centers offer counseling and elaborated guidance about the procedure, for special cases victims can also avoid coming to the court and attend the proceeding through a video call. The success rate for resolving issues has been more than 90 percent and most of the time the abuser is dismissed or prohibited from joining any workforce in the future depending on the severity of the accusation.

‘Workplace’ according to FOSPAH is any place outside the home, and they deal with incidents that take place even during travel or in education institutions. They encourage everyone to file complains of any unsettling situation they might come across outside home and let them investigate, also any evidence is always regarded to speed up the process. The organization also keeps a check on the victim after the case has been resolved and makes sure that they are not dismissed or bothered by the authorities.

FOSPAH is a great initiative especially for females working in private organizations, who are made to compromise and submit when subjected to harassment.