New Delhi: Women of today have emerged out of the shelters of their homes and are making their presence felt in all fields; political, legal, corporate, academic, sports, defence, etc. Yet women continue to be victims of disrespect, attacks and harassment at home and at work because of the unchanged and archaic social structure marked by patriarchy in our society. The Catholic Church in India acknowledges and considers violence against women and children as a special area of concern and advocates zero tolerance to any act of violence towards women and children (Catholics Bishops Council of India – CBCI Gender Policy).
The Church while wanting to ensure the protection and respect for women at workplace and without in any way underestimating the seriousness of sexual harassment of women at workplace, wants to address all forms of sexual harassment at workplace.
In keeping this objective, ‘CBCI Guidelines to Deal with Sexual Harassment at Workplace’ is gender inclusive and has been formulated to create a safe, healthy and loving environment that enables its employees to work without the fear of prejudice, bias and sexual harassment and creates a mechanism for prevention of any form of harassment. The document also delineates the process of handling cases of sexual harassment, if and when they occur and also tries to safeguard people from false allegations.
The promulgation of this document will take place on 14th September, 2017 at the CBCI Centre, New Delhi.
In a joint statement, Most Rev Jacob Mar Barnabas, Chairperson and Sr. Talisha Nadukudiyil, SD, Secretary, CBCI has earnestly requested the heads of institutions who come under the purview of the document to take note of the document seriously and implement it with the intention of realising it as the will of Lord Jesus Christ and as coming from the ethos of the Bible.