44% women on night shifts feel unsafe

Bangalore ranks pretty high on the country's insecurity index for women working on night shifts. Forty-four per cent of the women feel unsafe, according to a survey carried out by the Associated Chamber of Commerce and Industry of India in 2006 and released on Tuesday.

While Ludhiana topped the list at 45 per cent, the figures are lower in other metros 18 per cent in Mumbai, 38 per cent in Hyderabad, 24 per cent in Chennai, and strangely enough, just, 15 per cent in Delhi.

Speaking on the issue at a seminar in Bangalore, Suchaitra Eshwar, regional director, Nasscom said that nearly 30 per cent of the workforce in IT BPOs were women.

'Once you make a noise, people will know' Supreme Court advocate Aparna added: "Sexual harassment is not just about women, but largely about exercise of power by someone in power or influence against those in subordination and it is the responsibility of the employer to ensure women's security."

In case of organisations where the CEO was the perpetrator, the case could be transferred to an outside agency by the management of the company to ensure fair play and true justice, Aparna said.

Sadly, instead of the perpetrator of the crime, it is often the women victim who were offered the option of a transfer, she said. A victim of sexual harassment should draw public attention when it occurs to deter further harassment.

"Once you make a noise, people will know," she said. Posters highlighting what constituted sexual harassment pasted across workplace deters males from indulging in it and makes women aware of their rights.

Refuting allegations that provocative dressing was one of the reasons for sexual harassment, she said the victim was not provocatively dressed 95 per cent of the time. She also clarified that sexual harassment is not only about touching.

National Crime Record Bureau said that one woman is molested every 22 minutes, one kidnapped every 40 minutes, one woman raped every 43 minutes and one sexually harrassed every 50 minutes.

There were others before:

In December 13, 2005: 24-year old married HP call centre employee, Pratibha Srikanth Murthy was raped and murdered in Bangalore

27, July 2006: Call centre employee Tanya Banerjee, was murdered.

November 2007: Wipro employee, Jyoti Kumari Chaudhary was raped and killed at Talegaon, allegedly by the driver.

August 6, 2008: In Chennai, a BPO employee was sexually assaulted by her colleague who apparently gave date rape drug in her drink.

August 7, 2008: A girl, employed with IBM Daksh, was allegedly gangraped by 10 unidentified persons after being called out on the pretext of company work.