Reflective Workshop on ‘Defining the Workplace towards Respectable, Healthy and Safe Workplace for All’ for Airports Authority of India (AAI)

Sexual harassment affects all women in some form or the other. Lewd remarks, touching, wolf-whistles, suggestive looks are part of any woman’s life, so much so that it is dismissed as normal. Workingwomen are no exception,having experienced harassment at the workplace either personally or know women who have been harassed.

PRIA was among the first civil society organisations to form an internal complaints committee (Committee against Sexual Harassment) in accordance with the Supreme Court guidelines. It has also played a vital role in influencing its partners and networks to comply with the Supreme Court guidelines. PRIA has successfully used the Vishaka Guidelines in the prevention and redressal of sexual harassment at the workplace and in keeping with the spirit of the law has gone beyond its mandate to understand the manifestations of discrimination within institutionsin their internal functioning. Since 1998, PRIA has conducted trainings on gender mainstreaming and prevention of sexual harassment with panchayats and over 100 organisations throughout the country.

PRIA launched an e-Campaign Against Sexual Harassment in January 2010 through an interactive website (www.priacash.org), has its own Facebook account page (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=131843440169937&ref=mf) and is on Twitter (http://twitter.com/Gender_Matters) trying to advocate and build understanding regarding gender sensitive workplaces.

A direct consequence of the association of PRIA’s campaign against sexual harassment at the workplace and Airports Authority of India’s (AAI) commitment towards the prevention of sexual harassment within their workplace has resulted in a partnership that entails a training programmethat will oversee the training of 5,000 employees from AAI’s southern region headquartered in Chennai and eastern region headquartered in Kolkata. AAI is an organisation working under the Ministry of Civil Aviation that manages all the airports in India.

AAI’s policy on the prevention of sexual harassment at the workplace has been modelled on the Vishaka Guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court of India. Though the objectives of these trainings are to help employees define the workplace and understand the varied dimensions of misconduct within the workplace of AAI, the primary objective of the workshops is to build a common understanding on sexual harassment among employees as defined by the Supreme Court of India as well as to understand AAI’s strategy for the prevention and redressal of sexual harassment at the workplace. The series of trainingsspread over 3 months is aimed at sensitising employees across all four categories (A, B, C and D) of the organisational hierarchy. The programmebegan with three one-day trainings in Delhi with employees of all 4 categories. Various members of the organising committee sat through the three days to test our methodology.

Several different kinds of training designs had to be made to incorporate all aspects of varying requirements of language and literacy levels among the participating groups. After several weeks of intensive preparations, one terribly hot morning we wound our way towards the training venue. After several wrong turns, we finally made it to NIAMAR – AAI’s training institute located on a tree-lined campus on the way to Terminal 3.

We set up our training materials in the training hall.Today’s training was for Group A staff.The group lookedsceptical, many participants grabbingseats closest to the door in preparation,one presumes, for beating a hasty retreat at the end of the day. Clearly they were unprepared for a workshop such as ours. This was true for all three batches. But eventually, by the end of all sessions, the participants seemed to have enjoyed this new style of learning.

With an emphasis on learning rather than only on training, PRIA’s workshops are designed with the learners in mind, using the principles of adult education.The methodology used is inclusive and participatory in nature.The training methodology focuses on building critical consciousness, and examining one’s values and attitudes.

The AAI one–day training includes group activities; internal reflection of an individual’s behaviour in the workplace;discussions on defining the workplace and reflecting on the qualities of an ideal workplace, challenging authority of superiors and on more personal issues of misusing office resources for personal use; introduction to sexual harassment and AAI’s policy on the prevention of sexual harassment at the workplace, and case study analysis.

The training groups are varied; participants include the visually challenged, who were enthused enough to participate in the activities. It was remarkable to see the camaraderie that was shared between them and their other colleagues.

Across the three days, group discussions brought out a myriad of issues touching upon subjects such as identity with the organisation, respect from colleagues and appropriate safety measures during fire hazards. For D category staff,giving voice to their thoughts and having it heard by management was an empowering experience. It did help that senior personnel from the human resource department were at hand to respond to the more technical queries such as employee compensation for accidents occurring while at work or during football matches played for the organisation.

Discussions on sexual harassment are always robust with male participants loudly rebelling that sexual harassment policies are all pro-women. AAI’s policy is gender sensitive and protects both male and female employees from sexual harassment in the workplace. Discussions during the trainings centredaround women’s dress code and women going out at night being seen as open invitation for being sexually harassed, and worries about false complaints being lodged for revenge.Some women from group D shared that even though they are not literate, they are smarter, for they are ready to resort to violence should anyone even think of attempting any inappropriate behaviour with them.

PRIA also uses the Personal Response System to record and relate an individual’s attitudes and values. Each participant isgiven a remote sensor for voting. The voting process is confidential as each machine has its own unique code. The multiple-choice questions wereaboutan individual’s workplace behaviour, and participants chose their answers based on their own experiences correlated to misconduct according to AAI’s ECDA rules. Many participants felt they were part of the audience of the TV showKaunBanegaCrorepati. Good humouredribbing and laughter followed “honest” confessions from those who had never broken any rules.

Case study analysis sessions are the most enjoyable experience for participants. Rather interesting theories were conjured up during the three days.There was one case study in which a female colleague finds her male colleague’s hands on her chest while he pretends to be asleep in the car they are travelling in – “he fell asleep and his hand moved up in his sleep”. Of course debates ensued and the “guilty” was “brought to book” by the others; the “guilty” was eventually convinced that,yes, even in sleep gravity does work and things fall downwards rather than upwards!The participants were also of the view that if she was the only female colleague travelling with other males, the front seat shouldhave been offered to her.

The workshops ended with a self-assessment quiz and evaluation forms.As the AAI staff went off to catch the last shuttle for their journeys home,we hoped that any learnings they had had from the workshopswould always be remembered along with the fun.