Online Session on ‘Sexual Harassment at Workplace’

Title of the event: Sexual Harassment at Workplace

Type of Event: Online session

Date: 20.01.2022

Platform: Online (Zoom)

Name of Resource person: Ms. Nandita Bhatt, Director, Martha Farrell Foundation

No. of Participants/Beneficiaries: 97

Name of the activity Coordinator: Ms. Yuttika Singh

Name of Organizing department: Centre for Women’s Studies, IIS (deemed to be University), Jaipur

Objective of the activity:To create awareness among the participants about sexual harassment at workplace and their rights under the POSH (Prevention of Harassment at Workplace) Act

Internal Complaints Committee(ICC) in association with Centre for Women’s Studies organized an online session on ‘Sexual Harassment at Workplace’. The guest speaker was Ms Nandita Pradhan Bhatt, Director of Martha Farrell Foundation. The Martha Farrell Foundation supports practical interventions which are committed to achieving a gender-just society and promoting life-long learning.

Ms. Bhatt is responsible for the program delivery and management of the Foundation. She also heads the gender programs in PRIA (Society for Participatory Research in Asia) and has nearly 30 years of experience in the space of gender mainstreaming and inclusion. She has personally trained over 40,000 employees across over 60 national and international organisations, and has over two decades of experience training informal and formal workers, government officials and college and university-going students in prevention of sexual harassment at the workplace.
Ms. Bhatt gave an insight on the topic and discussed about the importance of a safe and gender just campus with the participants. She engaged the participants by taking polls on general questions regarding safety, consent, intent, etc. to understand their notions and response during situations directing towards harassment. She also mentioned the various Acts under IPC and the legislations guaranteeing rights to women in case of any grievance.The participants shared their own experiences and stressed on the need to create a safer society for women by bringing about a change in the mindset of people.

Towards the end of the session, the members of the Internal Complaints Committee were introduced to the participants by the presiding officer of the committee, Prof. Nisha Yadav. The participants were informed about the procedure to register their written complaints to the committee members in case of any encounter with harassment at the campus. 

Outcome of the activity/event/seminar/workshop:The session helped the participants to understand the subtle ways in which harassment could prevail in an official setting and how one should raise their voice and exercise their rights during adverse situations