Mysuru: CII Mysuru Chairman Arjun Ranga regretted that our social ethos does not provide enough security to women, which is the biggest cultural failure in the country.

He was speaking after inaugurating a workshop on ‘Prevention of Sexual Harassment (POSH) of Women at Workplace,’ jointly organised by CII Mysuru and NIPM Mysuru Chapter, here recently and said, “According to a recent survey on sexual harassment in India which involved around 6000 participants, only about 45 victims came forward to speak about their issues, and the survey revealed that about 30 percent of the Indian workforce has been facing this issue.”

“However, the same survey also seems to have revealed that most of the victims of sexual harassment at their respective workplaces didn’t even complain; many quit the organisation that they worked with. This is very shocking as it is a sad affair taking place in almost all the firms across the globe. It is hence important for an organisation to ensure the safety of its women employees with great care and encourage them to bravely face the issue,” he said.

Senior advocate and management consultant S. N. Murthy speaking on ‘Overview of the Legislation and Corporate Challenges’  said, “From the bygone times to this day, most of the places in India treat a woman as a curse. And it is not just men in the family but the women, more so the mother who delivers a female child herself considers her girl child as an annoyance,” and added, “I have seen several cases where the mother has even gone into depression after knowing she has delivered a baby girl. This discrimination and harassment of women is in fact nothing new to us Indians but is a huge problem to be addressed with care.”

Advocate and Consultant S. G. Karuna, speaking on the Provisions of the Legislation, elaborated on the definition of sexual harassment at workplace and called it a key term required to be understood in the legislation. She also spoke on the qualification for the members of a committee against sexual harassment in an organisation and the roles they need to play in implementation of the act.

Stating that the cases of false complaints too are high these days, she said that in about 50 cases of sexual harassment she has handled so far, about 3 percent of them involved in false complaints which is an issue that needs to be addressed seriously.

CII Convenor K. Anantha Gowda welcomed.  S. M. Jayaprakash, Chairman, NIPM and S. N. Gopinath, Past Chairman, NIPM Karnataka were present.