Hyderabad: A week-long celebrations on the occasion of International Women’s Day-2020, were organized by CSIR-IICT, Rachakonda Security Council (RKSC) and Rachakonda Police. A workshop on ”Prevention of Sexual harassment of women at the workplace” was held for Internal Committee members of the government and non-government organizations and stakeholders at the IICT Auditorium. A unique initiative was taken up to rope in the internal committees of Govt. institutions like NFC, CSIR Labs, ECIL, GHMC, AIIMS, ETDC, ESI, SBI and various other departments of the Govt. wings by RKSC and CSIR-IICT on March 6 at IICT auditorium wherein around 100 members participated in the workshop.
Dr D. Shailaja, Senior Principal Scientist, CSIR-IICT and member of Women’s Forum RKSC, described the relevance of the program. Dr. S. Chandrashekar, Director, IICT, welcomed the gathering and gave his opening remarks followed by Saleema, Additional DCP, SHE teams of Rachakonda, who sensitized the members on breaking the silence when there was sexual harassment at workplace .
Swathi Lakra, IPS, IG Women’s Safety Wing – Telangana State Police, was the Chief Guest at the event, who explained in detail the functioning of the various support centers and help lines that are available for distressed women across different parts of the city. She also briefed the POSHAW Act.
A series of lectures were given starting with by Mahesh Bhagwat, IPS, Commissioner of Police, Rachakonda, who spoke on how to differentiate between the myths and the truths pertaining to the complaints, awareness about women’s right and procedures to follow in lodging the complaints when there is sexual harassment at workplace. He also advised IC Members on clearly understand difference between harassment at workplace is sexual or otherwise.
Satyavathi, Secretary, Bhumika Women’s Collective, Manasi Choudhary, Advocate, explained the role of ICC members. The members were briefed on the Committee’s job roles on understanding the nuances of sexual harassment at the workplace, reporting procedures and provisions available. Emphasis was laid on various platforms that were available for women to approach to report various forms of abuse against them. The workshop enabled the participants of various institutions to help women at their workplace and their neighborhood to report abuse and channel them towards legal bodies towards a solution through an interactive session during the open forum.
SHE teams and NGOs like Bhumika Women’s Collective, and various other helplines like Hawkeye, etc are actively in reach and have immediate access to women in need. Margadarshaks are now empowered with information to channel victims to various helplines and support centre available. Bhagwat urged them to bring in a positive change in the lives of distressed women and spoke in detail about referring to latest case studies and trends of cyber frauds and cyberstalking towards women and stressed on the need to be vigilant.
The meeting concluded with vote of thanks by Latha Ram, Joint secretary, RKSC.
Participants expressed satisfaction over the program and vowed to work hard for safety of women at work place and off work place. Das Gunalan, AVP Infosys & VC RKSC, Pratyusha Jt Secy women’s forum SCSC, Bishnupriya Saxena Ex Jt Secy SCSC attended and interacted with participants.
