Hyderabad: Women's Day festivities galore in Old City

Charminar: On the occasion of International Women's Day, various organizations held awareness programmes and also held competitions amongst students in this endeavour.

The Rotary Club's (Women Wing) Innner Wheel Club of Hi-Tech Charminar in association with 10 other NGOs organised different activities, where various school children representing Standard High School, Radiance Mission High School, Modern High School (Koka Bazar), Modern High School (Koka ki Tatti), Government Girls High School (Urdu Medium), Government Girls High School (English Medium), MJM Girls High School, Quest High School, Gems High School and St Hills High School took part in drawing, essay writing and other competitions.

The event which was held at office of Hyderabad Mahila Mandal, Hussaini Alam was attended by Mir Najaf Ali Khan, the grandson of Nizam VII, as the chief guest, while Mohammed Imam Tahseen, Chairman, Golden Telangana Development Forum, was a guest of honour. "Teachers were given recognition for their services and students who excelled in the competitions were also awarded on the occasion," informed Dr Munnawar Sultana, the president ofInner Wheel Club of Hitech Charminar.

Meanwhile, celebrating the day, a 'Speak Out – Fearless Worker Campaign' was launched by Action Aid Association, Shaheen and Women Development & Child Welfare Department in Moghalpura. The campaign was launched to address effective implementation of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013.

The NGOs claimed that based on the study conducted by them on Sexual harassment at workplace by young urban women workers in unorganised sector gave some revealing facts. Though 91% women though faced sexual harassment (obscene/ sexiest remarks, unwanted touch) yet they did not report anywhere. Reasons vary from losing of job to lack of knowledge on reporting mechanisms within the workplace or by the state.

On Sunday, the campaign was launched in collaboration with local complaints committee to work with major focus on informal women workers groups, youth collectives, trade unions at different levels to generate awareness and empower informal women workers, institutions, schools, colleges and universities to use the provisions of the POSH (Prevention of Sexual Harassment) Act. Simultaneously, the campaign will highlight the status of implementation of the POSH Act.

"The campaign asks for safe and secure working spaces for informal women workers by ensuring an effective complaint mechanism on sexual harassment by the setting up of and strengthening the functioning of existing Local Complaint Committees (LCC) at the district level and ensuring effective presence of an Internal Complaints Committees (ICC) in all establishments employing more than ten workers.

ActionAid Association along with various women's groups will be conducting training and leadership building workshops at the community level on the PoSH Act, Right To Information (RTI) Act and other legislative and accountability seeking mechanisms along with organising awareness generation activities at the community level on reporting cases of sexual harassment at workspaces and about provisions under the Act that would empower them to do so," said, Jameela Nishat Founder and Director of Shaheen.