Even before the #MeToo movement began, Shivamma (name changed), a pourakarmika, stood up to her harasser, a supervisor, and filed a sexual harassment complaint against him. A year on, she is still waiting for justice, while the perpetrator is once again back as supervisor, albeit in a different ward.
The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) employs 18,000-odd pourakarmikas of whom nearly 95% are women. There are frequent complaints of women being subjected to harassment by the ‘mestris’ (supervisors), who threaten to terminate their services if they ask for their rights.
Recalling her harrowing experience, Shivamma said the supervisor exposed himself when she and her colleagues asked for their wages. They had not been paid for five months and were finding it hard to send their children to school and buy provisions for their home. “His accomplices were apprehended by the police, but the main perpetrator went scot-free after getting bail,” she said, adding that the present supervisor is an associate of the perpetrator.
“We are scared all the time. We want these supervisors and the contractor blacklisted by the BBMP,” she told The Hindu.
After several rounds of follow-up, the civic body finally put in place an Internal Complaints Committee, as mandated under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013. Since then, the ICC has received a total of six complaints, including one from a pourakarmika.
BBMP’s Deputy Commissioner (Estate) Soujanya, who is the chairperson of the ICC, said the committee, which has six members, meets every fortnight. It will soon be submitting its report pertaining to four cases to the Commissioner. The other two cases are in the enquiry stage, she said.
However, the BBMP Guttige Pourakarmikara Sangha, which is affiliated to the All India Central Council of Trade Unions, has maintained that the committee is “inadequate”, since there is no representative from the union. Maithreyi from the sangha said that most pourakarmikas are not aware of the ICC or that there is a mechanism to address their problems.
The sangha is now asking the BBMP to conduct training for all its employees on sexual harassment, apart from ensuring that the ICC is set up in each zonal office. It also wants awareness workshops to be conducted in each ward.