Dr. Charu WaliKhanna, Member, was Guest of Honour at NCW National Seminar on Violence Against Women Mainly focusing on Eve Teasing against Women at Public Places and Education Centres” The Seminar was organised by NGO Heal India at Patna on 27.06.2014.

The programme commenced with the traditional lighting of lamp and welcome speech by Ms. Abha Kumar, President, Heal India. Shri Awadesh Narain Singh, Chairman, Bihar Legislative Council delivered the inaugural speech and released NCW “Guidelines for various stakeholders involved with Internship of Female Students, Interns, Volunteer – Prevention, Protection and Redressal of Sexual Harassment at Workplace”.

Striving towards empowerment of women and girls has been the consistent endeavour of NCW. In order to create a truly equitable and gender just society it is necessary to ensure a safe working environment for women. With the objective of securing better protection for girls, NCW has developed the Guidelines which are central action points primarily focusing on Prevention of Harassment of Students and Interns; along with the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act and Rules 2013.

Dr. Charu WaliKhanna said that we must encourage victims to speak out and report incidents of violence and harassment be it outside or inside home. She stressed that girls tend to take eve teasing lightly and ignore it, which is a dangerous trend since it restricts personality development of the victim/girl . The term ‘eve teasing’ is frivolous in describing an offence and a form of sexual harassment. Briefly, sexual harassment or eve teasing is unwelcome attention or any form of action given by one person to another who does not like it. The so called “eve teasing is obstructive and destructive in the public discourse of a serious issue.

Dr. Charu WaliKhanna said that it is important to understand domestic violence in the context of social inequalities rather than on the dynamics of individual relationships. The discrimination between male and female is so deep that families normally imbibe and absorb these prejudices in an unconscious manner. She spoke extensively on right and problems of working women, and students and the need for gender sensitization.

Topics to be covered in the Seminar were Attitude towards female cases of Domestic Violence; Reasons cited for Eve Teasing, Implications and effects of women violence on our society and women; Wide-spread awareness programmes on importance and empowerment of women and girls in our society; Effective implementation of relevant statutory provisions; Assessment of role of police, Media, Judiciary and NGOs in cases of Eve Teasing ; Women education and empowerment ; Role of society and Suggestions for the improvement of the women in our society.

Eminent Speakers included Ms. Anjum Ara, Chairperson Bihar State Commission for Women, Ms. Harpreet Kaur IPS, SP, Weaker Section, Bihar, Advocate Ms. Mamta Pandey, Ms. Pushpa Rani, DGM, E. Central Railway, Prof. Renu Ranjan, Patna University, Prof. Kakoli Dey, Assam, Ms. Sheetal Sharma, Gender Expert, Agribusiness System International Lucknow, Ms. Ishita Mishra, Kolkata, Shri Aurangzeb Alam, Jharkhand among others.

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