A series of community workshops on, “Workplace Sexual Harassment” have been organized by BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD), Shobujer Ovijan Foundation (SOF), and Institute of Development Studies (IDS), British Academy. Maheen Sultan,
Senior Fellow of Practice and Head of Gender and Social Development Cluster, Lopita Huq, Research Fellow, Kabita Chowdhury, Senior Program Associate and Saklain Al Mamun, Research Associate, BIGD facilitated the workshop.
The first one of this workshop was held at the Kallyanpur Slum, Dhaka, on 27 March at 3pm and the second at Ashulia industrial zone, Savar on 30th march, 2022,. In that workshop, Maheen Sultan and Lopita Huq presented their findings in Bangla, and all the participants attended the workshops spontaneously and had an excellent open discussion. Kabita Chowdhury, moderated the whole session. Mahmuda Begum, Executive Director of Shobujer Ovijan Foundation, was also present in the workshop as a special guest. Some local government representatives, regional and national level development workers, trade union leaders, BGMEA representatives, Industrial police, slum VAW committee members, community leaders, domestic workers, and factory workers were present in that workshop. One of the workshop’s highlights was that the language used by the harassers surprised the participants and made them talk about the presentation and discussion afterward. During the open discussion session, a factory worker said, “We put in complaints about sexual harassment in the complaint box in our factory, but when the complaint box is open we only found complaints about water supply.”
In contrast, A BGMEA representative said, “We don’t get many complaints, and most workers are unaware of labor law.” Industrial police said, “It needs time to process a case, and because of this, many don’t want to file a case for sexual harassment.” BIGD’s research team took notes of some of the recommendations coming from the audiences and will later incorporate them into a policy brief.
A series of community workshops on, “Workplace Sexual Harassment” have been organized by BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD), Shobujer Ovijan Foundation (SOF), and Institute of Development Studies (IDS), British Academy. Maheen Sultan,
Senior Fellow of Practice and Head of Gender and Social Development Cluster, Lopita Huq, Research Fellow, Kabita Chowdhury, Senior Program Associate and Saklain Al Mamun, Research Associate, BIGD facilitated the workshop.
The first one of this workshop was held at the Kallyanpur Slum, Dhaka, on 27 March at 3pm and the second at Ashulia industrial zone, Savar on 30th march, 2022,. In that workshop, Maheen Sultan and Lopita Huq presented their findings in Bangla, and all the participants attended the workshops spontaneously and had an excellent open discussion. Kabita Chowdhury, moderated the whole session. Mahmuda Begum, Executive Director of Shobujer Ovijan Foundation, was also present in the workshop as a special guest. Some local government representatives, regional and national level development workers, trade union leaders, BGMEA representatives, Industrial police, slum VAW committee members, community leaders, domestic workers, and factory workers were present in that workshop. One of the workshop’s highlights was that the language used by the harassers surprised the participants and made them talk about the presentation and discussion afterward. During the open discussion session, a factory worker said, “We put in complaints about sexual harassment in the complaint box in our factory, but when the complaint box is open we only found complaints about water supply.”
In contrast, A BGMEA representative said, “We don’t get many complaints, and most workers are unaware of labor law.” Industrial police said, “It needs time to process a case, and because of this, many don’t want to file a case for sexual harassment.” BIGD’s research team took notes of some of the recommendations coming from the audiences and will later incorporate them into a policy brief.
