Harassment at Workplace

Harassment at workplace is nothing new, recently in a non government organization the male members of the organization ganged up and complained against one of their woman colleague to their seniors. The complaint was that she was not allowing the others to spend resources as freely as they would have wanted to, she put in a lot of quality checks to spending and she wanted a spending plan for the money that was being spent for community led initiatives. The seniors took this too seriously and have initiated a investigation to these, "ALLEGATIONS".

One wonders where did the woman go wrong, she wanted quality checks which we rarely integrate into any programme management cycle, she wanted a spending plan which is a important issue in spending resources especially in a resource poor state like Orissa.

Where are we actually heading to as we constantly talk of equality and equity. Have these remained mere jargons and buzz words to recieve more funds from international agency? Despite the fact that women have proved their worth, and proved that they are talented and can lead, they are not given opportunities. Women who are ambitious, assertive and who can give males a competition are still looked down upon and are still thought of as bossy, irritating women, who need to be either beaten up or removed from the organization. I know a unmarried female friend of mine who is highly professional and very much in demand because of her analytical skills is constantly called by her male counterparts a lesbo( a slang for lesbian), because she shines in most of the meeting that she goes to and her ideas are accepted and activities are undertaken.

The NGO sector in Orissa has never ever thought of quality checks within their organizations, nor have they made place for professional women who can contribute substantially to Project cycle management and growth of the organization. The NGO sector has also learnt how to circumvent donor demands and create personal fiefdoms of their own. If the donor looks for women representation within the organization then the wives and maid servants find a place in the Governing Body. In fact in one of the organization that I had visited, the Founder's (who was the Chief Functionary in the organization since the past fifteen years) Cook was the Treasurer.

Why are NGOs who are supposed to be the conscience of the community and civil society at large treat women so poorly, who will address harassment to women at workplace, we still have not established grievance cells to address sexual harassment at workplace which is something every society should have to protect the rights of the women. SO when will we be protecting the rights of the women at workplace. And when will we be actually focussing on protecting the core values of human rights: Respect, Equality, Choice, Diversity and Dignity.

DO share more stories on harassment at workplace we could work together on this.

Sarita.