National development cannot be conceived without participation of women who are an integral part of our work force. Women have moved up and are seen competing with men in every walk of life. They have proven themselves at par with the males because of their skills and remarkable potentials with the shifting paradigm of globalization.
Male chauvinism, unfortunately serves as a major impediment for females who keeps struggling to achieve their goals and their objectives. One of the tools that restrict their growth is sexual harassment at their work place. Innumerable females are being victimized on a daily basis in one way or the other and cases of victimization mostly go unreported because of the guilt factor and considering the conservative nature of our society. Sexual harassment cases go unreported often because of the fear that they might lose their job or because of the embarrassment or the shame the matter may bring to their reputation. This obviously has slowed down our social as well as economic progress.
Sexual harassment is not just a physical harassment but causes mental distress and immense agony badly shaking the confidence of the victim. Sexual harassment is not restricted to verbal abuse alone. Other forms of sexual harassment includes physical touch by male (while handing over the documents) or soliciting for sexual favours, asking female colleagues to go out on a date or even forcing them to directly or indirectly for sex. Unfortunately, all this is not made to appear as bad as they are. It brings great distress, anxiety, discomfort and highest level of uneasiness to the victim alone and obviously affects their families as well. Condemning this act is the first step, standing affirm without any fear is the second step and eradication of this peril is the third and the final step.
Secondly, women should try to build and keep written log, track of the dates, times and behaviour so that whenever the victim lodges a formal complaint against the offender, it becomes easier to quote instances with great confidence. Another important thing a victim can do is to get an emotional support from among any of the colleagues at work so that he / she stand by her in times of emotional crisis. Exploring company channels also can help victim where she can talk to the human resource personnel and share the issue so as to identify and isolate the offender and this can help in restoring the confidence of a victim.
We need to raise voice against this peril or else we can never expect the eradication of this menace. Presumed myth that this harassment might be rare is absolutely false and fabricated because it’s a menace that actually affects at least 40% of the working women today. Therefore it is important to understand the problem within our system and change the mindset of our people through education. The empowered women do voice their concern against such events but such examples are only isolated and more aggressive and concerted efforts are required.
Awareness must be created among the people through the media to combat the situation on a national level. Such campaign will make people understand the importance of women and the role they can play in the development of society and Pakistan’s progress.
