The number of harassment cases against working women in Sindh has registered a sharp increase, says a report issued by the Sindh Ombudsman Office.
According to the report, some top officials in Sindh government departments are also involved in harassing female colleagues.
During the first four months of the ongoing year, at least 57 cases of harassment against women were reported. While since 2013, a total of 213 such cases were brought to the notice of ombudsman.
Most of the cases, during first four months of this year, were reported from district South; of them majority of the complaints poured in from the Civil Hospital and the Sindh Secretariat.
Two doctors were also sacked for harassing females at the hospital.
The provincial ombudsman said several employees at government and private institutions were punished after being proven guilty in bothering females at work.
The Sindh government had appointed retired district and sessions judge Syed Pir Ali Shah as provincial ombudsman for protection against harassment of women at the workplace for a period of four years in June 2012.
With that appointment Sindh had become the first province to have a provincial ombudsman to provide a legal forum to women enabling them to lodge complaints against sexual harassment at the workplace.
It could also be that the women were being harassed, but they decided to report these cases now because they were confident they would get justice from the Provincial Ombudsperson who is doing an excellent job on addressing cases of sexual harassment throughout the province, in all the districts.
This also raises another point. I know that Standing Inquiry Committees were nominated in several departments of Sind Government after the law was passed in 2010. The reason for all these cases coming to the Ombudsperson could be that either they don't trust their Inquiry Committee Members or the harassers are too high in positions where the Committee members might not be able to do much against them. If it is the first reason, we need to do something about it.
We are grateful to the Sind Ombudsperson for cleaning out the work environment in Sind, so that both woemen and men can earn a living with dignity!
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