The government should also step in to improve the implementation of existing laws and increase budgetary provisions for workplace safety. Explain (200 Words)
Refer - The Indian Express
Enrich the answer from other sources, if the question demands.
IAS Parliament 3 years
KEY POINTS
· The Female Labour Force Participation Rate, already low in India, received a further setback with the pandemic.
· In understanding the all-time low female labour force participation rate, there is a need to factor in a longstanding problem the safety of women in workplaces.
· A recent study by Oxfam India on tea plantation workers reveals that the extremely hierarchical nature of their jobs, the migrant status of workers and the lack of other job opportunities for women tea pluckers contribute to the normalisation of workplace violence.
· An effective body for this purpose could have been the Local Complaints Committee structure under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act 2013, But such bodies are almost non-functional.
· Some measures that can be implemented immediately include sensitising informal sector workers on gender-based violence and informing them in simple language about the laws that deal with such violence;
· Employers must ensure that complaints committees are functional; sensitizing local labour contractors on how to deal with cases of sexual harassment at workplaces.
· These bare minimum measures can be implemented with technical support from local women’s rights organisations. The government should also step in to improve the implementation of existing laws and increase budgetary provisions for workplace safety.
