‘It requires more than a law to protect working women’

All conscientious citizens of the country need to create an enabling environment and an effective legal system to protect working women against discrimination, women rights activists said on Wednesday.
Appreciative of the fact that Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani had designated December 22 as the National Day for Working Women, they said parliamentarians, government ministries and department as well as private sector are equally needed to contribute towards the cause.
Malka Khan, programme manager of Aurat Foundation, said the passage of law to protect women against harassment at workplace was a meaningful development that has favoured the working women of the country.
“We now expect that the office of an ombudsperson is set up in every province of the country to facilitate women exposed to discrimination or harassment at their workplaces,” she added.
This, she said, has to be complimented by an internal code of conduct to combat harassment at each and every public and private organisation including factories.
“Many government organisations and private ones are urgently needed to develop a complaints and appeals mechanism that would help establish a safe working environment for women.”
Advocate Rubina Brohi said that there is an urgency to allocate resources, financial as well as trained human resources, to implement laws which have been recently promulgated.
“Government-appointed ombudspersons have to be available in all provinces, to document cases and arbitrate as needed,” she added.
Nasreen Hannan, a consultant and researcher said there is a need to create an environment where procedures are seen to be effective and binding.
“Unfortunately, many people still consider that the rightful place of women is home, not the workplace,” she said.
The activists said that it took many years of struggle by women rights organisations to bring this issue to the notice of lawmakers.
They were of unanimous opinion that concerted efforts are needed to implement pro-women bills in accordance with the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women requirements.