MahilaBol to the aid of working women

Nitin Jain

Taking a cue from the “Me Too”, a movement against sexual harassment and assault, which went viral after it was launched in October 2017 as a hashtag used on the social media to help demonstrate the widespread prevalence of sexual assault and harassment, especially at the workplace, a group of women from Chandigarh and other parts of the country has launched a national campaign called, “MahilaBol”, an online survey on sexual harassment of women at workplaces in the country.

Supported by the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development and the UN Women, this is probably the largest outreach-of-its-kind, claimed Amarpreet Kaur, the group leader from Gurugram.

Aimed at spreading awareness about sexual harassment and ways of dealing with it among over 50,000 working women both in urban and rural parts of India, this 10-minute exercise not only builds awareness amongst women but also gathers feedback on the experiences of sexual harassment and provides help to those currently suffering from it.

A local artist, Savita Bhatti, who is among the active members of the 45-member group, told The Tribune that the initiative covered educating women on the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act and how they could deal with sexual harassment in their practical life if they were ever subjected to it.

“Its aim is also to gather data by way of survey about the knowledge women have about the subject, experiences they have had to face in their professional life and take ideas from them on how they suggest to make the workplace free of sexual harassment for every working women in India,” said Bhatti, the wife of late popular satirist Jaspal Bhatti.

Kaur, an alumnus of the Indian School of Business, said results of the survey would help policymakers, NGOs and women empowerment organisations to build solutions around ending sexual harassment of women at workplace.

“This is not another campaign of sounding that the world is bad, in our heart of heart everyone knows this. The key purpose of this campaign is to build solutions, only when the symptoms and problems are diagnosed then the policymakers can implement and design effective and long-lasting solutions,” the group leader opined.

Till now, as many as 5,700 women have already completed the survey in five languages across 11 cities.

“Our survey will be on till June end and we will submit a detailed report along with recommendations to the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development as well as the UN Women for bringing requisite improvement to check sexual harassment at workplaces,” informed Kaur. She added, “We need to spread the message that government is listening and if women want change, this is the time to speak up.”

Disturbing tales

Some of the disturbing tales the women have shared with the initiative are:

• A school headmistress was forced and sexually harassed by a management member and as she tried to complain, she was terminated from the service.
• A shy woman worker was blackmailed in the office by shooting her naked video.
• A professor at a medical college insisted his girl students to sleep with him to pass the exam.
• A woman was raped in the office and then it was termed as “consensual sex”.

How to participate

Those interested to join the survey can give a missed call at 9505270111.