In a written reply submitted before the Parliament during the ongoing Monsoon Session, Smriti Irani, the Minister for Women and Child Development, states that a total of 391 complaints have been received in the SHe-Box pertaining to various Central Ministries, out of which 150 complaints have been received since January 1, 2020.

Sexual Harassment Electronic Box or the ‘SHe-Box’ is an online complaint portal developed by the Ministry of Women and Child Development to facilitate the registration of complaints related to sexual harassment of women at work place. Once a complaint is registered in the SHe-Box, the Minister in her answer, explained that it directly reaches the concerned authority having jurisdiction to take action in the matter. “The responsibility to take action on such complaints as well as to ensure updating of status in that regard on SHe Box, is with the concerned Central Ministries/ Departments,” her answer read.

However, the Minister stated that an analysis of 36 cases filed through SHe-Box by employees of the Ministry of Women and Child Development showed that there were only “two cases” of sexual harassment of women at workplace. Further, nearly 32 cases were “in the nature of public grievances on various matters relating to violence against women, dowry harassment, misbehaviour, suggestions, etc.,” and the remaining two were repeat entries.

In another question posed to the Minister on July 29, she addressed the horrific issue of open auction of Muslim women through an application namely ‘sulli deals’. Hundreds of images of Muslim women were reportedly uploaded via this auctioning app. (the word sulli is a derogatory term used to refer to Muslim women). She informed the Parliament that a First Information Report (FIR) had been registered on July 7, 2021 by the Delhi Police against the application.

In related news, social media giant Twitter, recently responded to a complaint filed by CJP against some accounts that often-used foul language, posted obscene, pornographic content, and encouraged sexual violence against Muslim women. Taking cognisance of our complaint, Twitter suspended 21 accounts, actioned three for violating Twitter’s Media Policy and removed some 11 posts.

The answers may be read here: 

Related:

CJP Impact: Twitter suspends 21 accounts threatening Muslim women with sexual violence
Violence against women – more than just a law & order problem

The post 391 complaints of sexual harassment at workplace received from Central Ministries: Government appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Even in metropolitan cities like Mumbai and Delhi, Muslims continue to face prejudice in the formal sector, said Mumbai’s feminist collective Parcham in their latest report ‘Being a Muslim at the Workplace.’

Parcham members worked in collaboration with the Advanced Centre for Women’s Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) and decided to focus on Mumbai – the financial capital – and Delhi – the city of policymakers. The study interviewed Muslim youth in these two cities that offered opportunities for employment and survival for residents and migrants.

The report showed the subtle manners in which the community faced discrimination right from the time of applying for jobs. Even in companies with over a 100 employees, respondents said they were often the first and only Muslim employees.

Applicants who reach the interview stage encounter discrimination on account of their dress or their beard. One respondent said that her hijab came in the way of being recruited in two places that asked her to take off the garb while working.

“In both of these places, she was interviewed by Muslims who did not want a hijabi person because she assumes they probably did not want to seem regressive in hiring her,” said the report.

Another youth said that the final choice between two meritorious candidates might be based on community preference but is difficult to call out at the time. At the beginning of the report, interviewers mentioned respondents’ reluctance to document their experiences for fear of reprisal and implications on their future career.

“The reluctance to speak out is in itself very telling of the perceived citizenship status and the fear of Muslims in India,” Parcham members in the report.

Despite working as unpaid interns and engineering graduates receiving starting salaries between Rs. 6,000 to 12,000 per month, respondents did not report discrimination at the workplace. However, everyone agreed that as a Muslim, one had to be extra careful about one’s image, work harder and challenge the stereotype. One of the respondents in upper management says that if there is a narrative of bias against Muslims, this makes it doubly necessary for Muslims to work harder.

Examples of this are sprinkled throughout the report with one respondent, sporting a French beard and a kurta pyjama with a skull cap, wondered about his attire before being reassured by his boss. A global conglomerate did not have designated holidays for Eid although all Hindu festivals and even Good Friday were holidays. Respondents saw this as “some form of Islamophobia.”

Gender as an added layer of discrimination

Throughout the report, women respondents spoke of layered difficulties in working. They faced discrimination within homes and at the workplace. One of them had an uphill task convincing her family to allow her to study civil engineering, a field not considered suitable for women.

Even so she was asked to “take a break” from the job upon marriage because her employer thought she would not be able to handle both marriage and household. The person found a new job but expressed the belief that the discrimination was on account of gender, not religion.

Similarly, another woman working at a BPO was denied promotion twice though she was the most experienced person and was entrusted with responsibility beyond her job profile by her bosses. She had to negotiate with the threat of leaving the job to get a promotion that too without an increment. She was verbally harassed by younger members in her team and quit the job after her third complaint went ignored. The person who instigated the harassment was made the team leader after she left.

A third respondent spoke of a colleague who quit her job because her boss wanted her to party with him.

Workplace environment

Respondents were much more vocal about instances of discrimination in a social environment. For example, during elections, one respondent spoke of feeling physically sick by the discussions at her workplace and took a day off on the day of counting. Another said that his colleagues told him he would be unhappy if the BJP won. Yet another mentioned a conversation at work on divisive politics prevalent in India where a person said, “We are alright with all communities except (silence)”. She confronted the person to accept that they meant Muslims, but also tried to have a conversation with them drawing on her own relationship with that person.

“This is the only way forward, rather than debating. People can have a great relationship with individual Muslims but will still hate the community,” said the respondent.

In 2020, following reports of the Tablighi Jamaat linkage with Covid-19, one person said they received a WhatsApp forward on the office group blaming Muslims for the spread of the virus. He asked, “If people ask me about the Tablighi Jamaat, I say that I am not their spokesperson. Why should I be asked?” 

Statements like ‘You Don’t Look Like a Muslim’, ‘You don’t behave like a Muslim’ were made to respondents as compliments because they do not “fit into the stereotype of the Muslim.” However, during India-Pakistan cricket matches, it was assumed that the Muslim employee will root for Pakistan. One person was even asked if they felt sorry that Ajmal Kasab received the death penalty.

Despite all this, one respondent said Muslims must also make an effort not to exacerbate situations. Accordingly, some respondents said they were careful not to bring non vegetarian food for lunch so as not to hurt others’ sensibilities.

Others were cautious not to encourage stereotypes, One person narrated an incident where a Muslim colleague disappeared with the office laptop, sparking off a heavy enquiry about who the person is and what locality they belong to. When this happens, the next Muslim has to work 10 times harder to change that stereotype.

Employers also conduct background checks to see if a person was part of a protest or was arrested for some reason. That will be a bad record and will make them ineligible for hire. One woman, who has been active in the anti-CAA campaign, said her participation was questioned by employers.

Advice by the community, for the community

The youth interviewed for the study recommended that the community should “open up” and “get out of our bubble”. They expressed a need for Muslims to begin to look outwards, to recognise that a world exists outside of ghettos like Mumbra.

Some spoke of the need to get out of the victim mentality among Muslims which kept them from seeking higher education and jobs. They believe the need for Muslims to prove themselves by working harder than the rest.

“If the majority community has stereotyped Muslims, Muslims too are unwilling to assimilate and accept different cultures,” said one respondent.

Many participants said they have sung hymns in convent schools or joined Diwali pooja which did not make them “a lesser Muslim.”

The report on its part also reiterated the need to implement the recommendations of the Sachar committee. It called for a review of the proposed guidelines of the Equal Opportunities Commission, especially its redressal mechanism that includes class action suits. Such measures make it harder for community members to be hired. It also called for implementation of the Diversity Index, promotion of Affirmative Action policies by corporates, setting up of a Muslim Chamber of Commerce and intervention at schools to curb discrimination at a young age.

Related:

CJP complains to Zee Media over broadcast of “Vaccine Jihad” show
One killed, six injured in UP for allegedly smuggling cows
Cleric arrested for allegedly raping minor girl in Delhi mosque, trolls fuel communal fire
UP: Family alleges Bulandshahr man was pushed off roof by police

The post Being Muslim in the Workplace: A report by Parcham Collective appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Photo Courtesy: Indian Express

Former Minister of State for External Affairs in the Modi Cabinet, MJ Akbar had resigned after this piece was written. It is still relevant —Editors}

Everybody is surprised. Why does Narendra Modi continue to carry on with such a huge embarrassment in his cabinet: even while (a) Akbar does not carry much political weight, nor a mass-base, nor does he even have a skilful hold on organisational structures and leaderships? (b) Modi’s ‘Beti Bachao’ campaign is being rendered hollow while sort of letting Akbar abuse his office by hiring as many as 97 advocates. This in itself may suggest spectacularly that Akbar himself is shaken and lacks confidence in the merit of his defence.    

The vocation of politics has increasingly been losing decency and morality. More and more people perceived as ruffians, land mafia, and sex-racketeers, and accused of rape, murder, loot, gangsterism, etc., are becoming legislatures.    

Akbar, however owes his rise into politics to his previous association with the Congress because of his outstanding professionalism in sort of introducing and popularising investigative journalism. Later, he turned hostile against Sonia Gandhi which endeared him to the BJP. Thus, while he rose through the Congress because of his professional distinction, his continuation in the Narendra Modi cabinet, despite mounting (as many as 20 women have thus far come out including one from USA) accusations of highly outrageous and perverted instances of sexual harassment, puts the Congress and BJP in sharp contrast.
Akbar’s track Record of Cunning Opportunism
 
Great genius that M.J. Akbar is, in the late 1980s, he published (or reproduced his news reports) “Riot after Riot“, when the dominant political wisdom of India was displaying some concerns and sympathies for the pathetic condition of the India’s Muslims. The Gopal Singh Committee Report had also come out. So, this book played to the galleries of power. Not long after that, he was elected M.P. from Kishanganj, Bihar, and subsequently, he became advisor to the then Minister of Human Resource Development.
 
When A.B. Vajpayee came to power with an almost comfortable shift, Akbar published Shades of Swords, on Jihadi Islam, that appealed to the dominant political wisdom of the day, both Hindutva forces, as well as post 9/11 USA.
 
Again in 2004, when the Congress-led coalition (or non-Hindutva formation) came to power, the masterly prose writer and perceptive thinker in Akbar did not delay the publication of his autobiographical novel, Blood Brothers, depicting the dilemma and pathetic conditions of the Indian Muslims, particularly in the 1960s. It was consistent with the political concerns catalogued in and articulated through the Sachar Committee Report.
 
In 1991, in a Sunday supplement of the Times of India, M. J. Akbar had written a column, “Is Islam in Danger?” This was the worst possible vilification of Sir Syed.   In Aril 2010, the AMU’s Sir Syed Academy had invited M. J. Akbar to deliver the annual Sir Syed Memorial Lecture. He displayed a complete volte face from what he had written about Sir Syed in 1991.There was applause at many points in his speech. But much of what he said in 2010 would have certainly been branded utterly communal and chauvinistic by none other than the Akbar of 1991.
 
Today (he has since resigned) , he is in the cabinet of Narendra Modi, a regime which has almost pathological hatred towards Nehru. Let us not forget, Akbar wrote an erudite biography, Nehru, the Making of India, while he enjoyed the privilege of power from the Congress. Another instance of the appalling contradiction or opportunism of Akbar!
 
 
 Shamelessly Stubborn BJP
The BJP has shown (until today) the utmost arrogance in retaining tainted ministers in the cabinet. When in the opposition, the party resorted to all sorts of protests: hitting the streets, obstructions inside the Parliament. [Its Sangh Parivar is a kind of organization which even resorts to outrageously wrong and unconstitutional means when the institutions of democracy prohibits it from letting them wish their fulfil. One may recall how they pulled down the Babri Masjid in defiance of their own assurances to the judiciary].

The press was sincere in articulating public ire, hence supporting the opposition in every legitimate way. Today, a bigger section of popular media is busy deflecting all those issues which can embarrass the incumbant regime. Such sections of media are not exposing the outrageous details of unprecedented huge corruption in Rafale deal. All their interrogations continue to be against the opposition, which is perhaps at its weakest in recent decades. The media channels appear busy creating acute polarisation by administering excessive doses of nationalism and religion and by vilifying and incriminating minorities and Dalits.   

This manner in which both the ruling BJP and [this section of] the media are debilitating democracy is dangerous. At any point of time in the future when the BJP sits in the opposition, it will not have any moral authority to ask for the resignations of erring ministers.

Perverted Urban Middle Class
What is most disconcerting is the perversion of the urban middle class of today. They hardly appear to be outraged as much as they greedily look for salacious, lewd details of the ways in which Akbar assaulted the women. The accounts of women suggest he was a serial offender. By that logic, a section of the non-outraged urban middle class, too, should be categorised the same way. Every day they eagerly wait for some more of such details to be revealed by yet another victim. It is this perversion, pervasive in today’s rabidly and pathetically sex-consumerist society, which has even more dangerous implications.

Until this evening (when he resigned), it was possibly, this lack of outrage among sections of the otherwise vocal urban middle class which provides confidence to the BJP to arrogantly remaining dismissive about the issue. Or who knows, there could be another reason: someone higher up in the league may also fall because of this #MeToo Campaign!

It is common knowledge that besides corporate establishments, it is the world of the media and academia where sexual exploitation is said to be rampant. Career-prospects of young aspirants depend upon seniors in these sectors. This vulnerability is abused by many.

 Today, the daunting challenge before society therefore is: how to get rid of the collective moral perversion of this patriarchial -consumerist urban middle class? As far as Akbar’s continuation in the cabinet is concerned, it is exposing the BJP and its timid, silent allies, every moment. The RSS cannot go on claiming its moral high ground conveniently, selectively and opportunistically invoking Bharatiya Sanskriti.
 
 (The writer is Professor, Centre of Advanced Study in History, Aligarh Muslim University)
 
 

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