WORKPLACE DYNAMICS, LAWS AND GENDER RIGHTS

CERTIFICATE COURSE CLASS ON WORKPLACE DYNAMICS, LAWS AND GENDER RIGHTS

A MODULE BY DR. MAYA JOHN

-RIYA BINOJ

The Women’s Study Centre of Jesus and Mary College, conducts Certificate Course Classes from time to time. These classes are in the form of interactive lecture series where women-centric issues are discussed. The module on “Workplace Dynamics, Laws and Gender Rights” was conducted by Dr. Maya John, from the Department of History, Jesus and Mary College. It was on the 6^th of September, 2019 and consisted of a 2 hour lecture. These classes were open for all students of JMC, who participated in large numbers. The class discussed and debated about the dynamics found in the workplace, women’s conditions in these workplaces and the impact of laws on these conditions.

The session started by introducing the newly formed core-team to the audience. The core-team members talked about their responsibilities and took suggestions from them. This acted as a good ice-breaking session. The class was highly interactive and saw an active participation by the audience members. Dr. Maya opened the session by asking everyone to look at the poster circulated earlier along with the course details. She then asked about the first impressions of the poster. This lead to variety of responses by the members, which were then arranged in a list and discussed one-by-one. From this list, she then went on to discuss the conditions of women in the society. The next activity involved making a list of all sectors where women are generally found to be active. This lead to diverse responses from the students, which were then grouped according to the nature of work conditions. The audience members were then informed that 90% of women in India work in the informal sector, where labour laws often do not apply. Students, through examples, realized the implications of such deregulation in the workplace, often leading to exploitation of women. The situation of domestic workers was stressed upon by Dr. Maya who by giving examples of hypothetical situations, explained how their issues are often not resolved because of lack of regulation regarding their working conditions.

The class then moved on to discuss frequent problems experienced by women at their workplace such as sexual harassment , limited job opportunities, lack of job security among others. The students while listing the problems, often made an effort to explain the same through relevant examples. The class, led by Dr. Maya then made attempt to link these problems. She then explained the resulting concoction by making the students realize that the problems that women face in the workplace are rarely a “gender only problem”. Rather, it is a result of a mix of socio-economic factors. Dr. Maya then supported her statement with two compelling arguments. First of all, why are problems faced by working women worse at the lower end of the job market? If the problems were based on “gender only” then the condition of all women, irrespective of their socio-economic status, should be the same. Thus, the absence of labour laws and lack of regulation in the informal sector must have some influence on the condition of working women. Secondly, do women who enjoy a high socio-economic status actually assist other women in the workplace? Ma’am also give an example of how women who belong to upper-caste families often exploit both lower caste men and women. Dr. Maya made the students realize that women are not a homogenous but rather, a heterogeneous community. Thus, factors such as caste, class among others, need to be taken into account while discussing these issues.

Dr. Maya also explained how capitalism as a system is against equal status for women. She talked about how the history of capitalism is rooted in women and child labour. Women’s flexible, low-paying jobs serve their profit making agenda. Women’s rights and benefits are generally overlooked in order to be cost-effective.

The discussion then moved to the laws related to women’s conditions in the workplace and their rights. Dr. Maya discussed two laws in detail - Sexual Harassment at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 and Unorganized Workers’ Social Security Act (UWSSA), 2008. She stressed how the system of forming an “Internal Complaints Committee (ICC)” looks revolutionary at the surface level but in reality, increases in-house inequality drastically. The selection criteria of the committee were then discussed with inputs from several audience members. Then numerous case studies were provided, both by Ma’am and also by the students, where such issues were addressed, their results and the implications. Dr. Maya then highlighted how the 2013 Act has a blind spot and that it missed the larger picture of how such issues are not gender pure. By forming an ICC, there results a categorization that sexual harassment is separate from other issues that women face in the workplace. Gender rights are thus, not seen as a part of labour rights and thus, gender-concerns bifurcate from labour issues. Two issues faced while the formation of an ICC were also discussed. First of all, the validity of the implementation and secondly, how in many unorganized sectors, such committees cannot be formed. Many solutions were proposed for solving this problem, including putting pressure on the police and state authorities.

The Unorganized Workers’ Social Security Act (UWSSA), 2008 was then discussed along with the Domestic Workers Welfare Board Act and the Minimum Wage Act (1948). The problems faced with these regulations and schemes were discussed. Students realized that many of such laws are “Janus-faced.”

Along with discussing the issues that women face in the workplace, many alternate solutions were proposed, often highlighting the necessity of making the state more accountable and decreasing privatization of gender inequality related concerns. Overall, the class saw an active participation from the students. The students realized the importance of critically analyzing issues women face in their workplaces, the dynamics present and the importance and implications of laws and rights regarding the same.