Memorandum letter : Domestic maids/helps & Rag-Pickers should be within the ambit of PWSH Bill 2010

by e-mail

To,
The Hon'ble Prime Minister Dr. Man Mohan Singh
Government of India , South Block
New Delhi-110011

With copy for necessary action to
The Hon'ble President Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil
Rashtrapati Bhavan , New Delhi – 110011

Respected Sir / Madam ,

I wish to bring to your notice that at first I am delighted that the
Protection of Women Against Sexual Harassment at the Work Place Bill
2010 , that will place victims of sexual harassment at the workplace
almost at par with rape victims or juvenile delinquents , has been
cleared by the Union cabinet, in which a key feature is acknowledgment
of the stigma and social discomfort which filing a case generates for
a victim. This is good that acknowledging victims' need for absolute
confidentiality, the bill provides for " no information on the
complainant or the complaint be made known to the media public in any
manner".
Though this would overpower the provisions of the Right to Information
Act 2005, forbidding investigating officials, government officers and
anyone else with access to the relevant information to disclose any of
it , but we welcome this move of the government in the larger interest
of society. This is also good that to control fake complaints , for
the very first time , the bill provides for punishment under service
rules for any person giving a false complaint or false evidence .

Though the bill provides protection to women who are employed and
also to any woman who enters the workplace as a client, customer,
apprentice, daily wage worker or in ad hoc capacity , Students,
research scholars in colleges or university and patients in hospitals
, the bill has left the most vulnerable ( to sexual harassment )
section of the society i.e. the domestic maids , who are not covered
by the bill and this is the most negative aspect of the bill that
takes all the positives of the bill away from it.

This is in utter injustice that the government wants to leave that
section of women workers who constitutes a major chunk of
working-women and are amongst the most exploited ones . Studies have
shown that they are extremely vulnerable to sexual harassment. In this
Context , the Bill has extremely limited scope and it is very
condemnable that the government has not taken this marginalized
section of the society which constitutes the largest section of
working-women though working in an unorganized sector.

The Bill shall now be presented in Parliament. I demand that before
tabling the bill in the parliament , necessary provisions be made to
bring domestic maids/helps and Rag-pickers within the ambit of the
"Protection of Women Against Sexual Harassment at the Work Place Bill
2010 " .

Regards;

Date : 06-11-10

Yours truly,
Urvashi sharma
(Social Worker )
F 2376 rajajipuram
Lucknow - 226017
mobile 8081898081