Gender sensitization is all about managing the sensitization of gender equality concerns. It helps people in examining their personal attitudes and beliefs and question the realities of both genders. Gender sensitization covers the concept of gender sensitivity, where there is recognition of gender roles, identification of privilege and discrimination within genders, and most importantly creating gender awareness.
How to learn Gender Sensitization?
- Teaching gender sensitivity from the beginning
- Understanding the role of gender sensitivity
- Be a role model.
- Keep communication lines open.
- Express Yourself
- Read and Learn
We have with us Dr. Vageshwari Deswal. She is an academician, author, feminist and activist working as a Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Delhi. An accomplished scholar awarded Gold medals and National Merit scholarship during her student days, Dr. Vageshwari Deswal has over 2 decades of teaching experience and is recognised globally for her work in the area of criminal law and gender Justice. She has been quoted extensively by Government authorities in Canada, Australia, Hongkong and also by Punjab and Haryana High Court. She has also been credited with the creation of e-content for MHRD and has done research projects for NCW, NHRC and ICSSR. Prof. Deswal has published several books in addition to over 25 research articles and Book reviews in leading law Journals. She has a blog titled “Legally Speaking” with Times of India and regularly appear as a legal expert on Sansad TV and Doordarshan.
Question 1: How would you describe your journey so far and what motivated you to choose this field?
Answer: God has been kind now it has been rewarding psychologically and emotionally there is a sense of satisfaction that I could do what I wanted. You know work is fun when you love what you do reaching out to people and clarifying legal doubts without being too imposing. I strongly believe that teaching is a two-way process see the contents for most of my talks or blogs all come from my classroom interaction with my students it is extremely stimulating to have challenging questions thrown at you and then respond with equally thought-provoking answers that further inspire your students to delve deeper into. It was a natural choice for me, my mother is a senior practising lawyer she belongs to the time we had very few women who practised law and it was largely a male-dominated profession. She inspired me to be myself. Never allow yourself to be bogged down by what others expect of you choose wisely I mean go with what you believe is right morally and ethically and then stand by your choice even if that means standing alone. As a child I have observed mom telling her clients the way she talked to them helps them explain all the pros and cons of going ahead with the litigation, the objective was never to make money it was always to ensure that the clients knew what was happening that they could have a say in the way the case was proceeding and did not feel any needed or cheated by a formalist.
Question 2: What is the main issue of gender sensitization?
Answer: We live in a patriarchal society, is not easy to shut the gender Stereotypes. We need to understand that men and women are biologically different. But that doesn’t mean that one is superior to the other, God has created diversity but humans have discriminated on the basis of that diversity. We can say you need to understand the difference between sex and gender – they are not the same they cannot and should not be used interchangeably. Sex is the biological difference between women and men were just determined by genetics it’s due to the different biological and physiological characteristics of males and females such as reproductive organs, chromosomes, and hormones whereas the concept of gender is a social construct that is unique to humans. There are traditional notions about the roles and status of women and men in society so we have these preconceived ideas whereby males and females are arbitrarily assigned characteristics and roles which are determined by and also limited by their sets; Although such views may have changed with time. The underlying assumptions about women’s position in a community, they still enjoyed in many societies. So we need to deconstruct those stereotypes and we need to understand that human nature it involves a blend of male and female, merely biological they by themselves have no social or political significance and that is something each one of us needs to understand.
Question3: What is the importance of gender sensitivity training and how do they implement it at the base level?
Answer: Gender sensitivity training to catch them, start early, and raise a sensitized generation. The first goal of every child is the home, we need to look inwards challenge and change the old practices and prejudices that in society. Every person needs to understand that household chores are not predetermined by gender similarly contributing to the family whether it is financially physically emotionally it is something which men can also do and women can also do. Schools also need to rewrite them correctly we need to replace our old stories which depict girls as dancers and distressed waiting for some prints to rescue them or depict traditional patriarchal families as the only ideal family centre taking language that discriminates. For example, the gender opposite of master this mistress is a derogatory term this needs to be checked and defaced from forced books and they need to replace it with more content dairy literature that talks about gender equality or movies or series of video games they all need to be properly censored and progressive content need to be discouraged. We have to stop glamorizing stalking of women we need to check indecent lyrics that objectify women we need to challenge gender-specific toys that make girls have unrealistic expectations about their body types or skin tones and toys or games that make boys more aggressive and more destructive.
So gender sensitization is the most important aspect of personality development in contemporary society. we are divided into two conventional attributes male and female and anything that does not fit into these two categories or those people who have alternate sexualities or non-conventional identities are disturbing for most of us and we consider it abnormal and not natural. So, for transgender’s discrimination begins at home, it’s continuous families are not supportive, they’re ashamed of having a child whom they consider abnormal, beatings, humiliation, collective rapes, medical treatments, other treatments and whatnot to make the child feel even what it has been told by the society regarding his or her identity. Many children run away from their families there are cases where children are also thrown out by their parents due to these clashes. Despite having laws that prohibit such discrimination there was a reluctance on part of institutions to admit such children they are subjected to ridicule by their classmates sometimes by insensitive teachers also who impose their own notions of gender and sexuality upon them.
They are blocked to accept them, they seldom get invites for any get-together, and people are reluctant to make them a part of this group. Then there are these infrastructural handicaps such as lack of separate washrooms in public places all this compels them to conceal their identities and they go into depression sometimes they develop criminal tendencies and then such depressed children who are like this, such children are easy prey for sex predators and traffickers who might be sometimes their relatives or sometimes complete strangers. So, what we need to do is we need to move beyond tokenism just making a single law and then faltering its implementation, framing a few policies for the namesake this is not sufficient. It is highly pertinent to integrate all use as people in this society.
Question 4: What are the provisions under the POSH Act?
Answer: See POSH is very progressive legislation that protects women from any kind of sexual harassment or discrimination based on gender. It’s a specific law that protects only women, but the perpetrator or accused can be anyone. See the perpetrator of sexual harassment may be a man or woman or even a transgender. I’m the best part is that unlike the Vishakha which was elitist this is a law which is not linked to the majority of our women who work in the unorganized sector so we have internal teams in all workplaces having ten or more employees and then we have local committees for every district that caters to women working as soon list IC workers and small construction sites or on farms. So, what does your task it mandates every employer to frame an empty sexual harassment policy constitutes a local constitute internal committee and then display all this information on its site or any other conspicuous place at the workplace additionally we are also obligated to organize gender sensitization workshops for their employees?
So that everybody understands what is acceptable and what is unacceptable, conduct the inquiry process has also been made time bound and has to be conducted with utmost regard to privacy during the pendency of the proceedings with the woman wants any instant relief she can seek transfer or leave there is a provision also for conciliation right that is only at the behest of the complainant and also only in the initial stages and the law expressly forbids any monitoring consideration for consideration as it was feared that women could misuse the law and target men with deep pockets and then draw false complaints after exhorting any kind of money from there so another important step to check the misuse of this gender-specific law is that this law provides penalty for the complainant woman also if it can be proven by the excuse that they complained of sexual harassment was false and malicious. So, this has all been done to discourage false complaints
Question 5: What is it penalty for noncompliance with the POSH Act?
Answer: When we talk about non-compliant first we need to understand what constitutes noncompliance that is like if the employer does not constitute an internal committee or if he sits on the inquiry report if he does not take action on the report whether it is recommended against the respondents or the complainant all their the organization does not submit its annual report to the district of this are or if they diverge any details of the complainant and all these things for the contravene any other provision or rule of the act then it’s all constitutes non-compliance. For which there is a prescribed penalty of rupees 2000 in the first instance double the punishment in case of repeat or non-compliance and even after that if there is an instance of noncompliance then there is provision for cancellation withdrawal or non-approval of license or registration for carrying on any business trade or activity.
Question6: Why is there a need for POSH Act?
Answer: Sexual harassment is the invisible thing this society refuses to acknowledge. It until adapts to something more violent such as history and that is the time when we sit up and take notice of the law this is something that we needed to have control of earlier so we have normal ideas of teasing stalking etc. as normal behaviour. And women who take offence if they are labelled as oversensitive one who is making a mountain out of a mole, many times women are not up there but what is happening amongst sexual harassment that can be complained against because all this has been so normalized by the society and then there is the stigma in society especially all women what was she wearing who was she talking to all these things we are very quick to judge the victim instead of the accused person and then there is this excruciatingly long and painful journey of registering a complaint reliving the ordeal several times these multiple demotivating practices many times even the accused is unaware of the uncomfortable situation in which he is putting the woman so posh training has been mandated in all the departments in order to tie it over the numerous challenges to the realization of equitable treatment for women. It formulates its policies in a way so as to create and sensitize all our people by providing opportunities for skill enhancements employments development to what is required is to inculcate human rights sensitive conscience then structurally sustain an atmosphere of mutual respect, unity, concern and well-being of each one of our fellow humans irrespective of their gender
Question 7: What advice would you like to give to the freshers who are trying to start their career in this field?
Answer: Law is a career that is very demanding it needs and extensive sentence you need to continuously update yourself with the latest legislative amendments, judicial pronouncements and then also stay connected with legal developments at the international in contemporary times rather than the cyber age we need to prepare and equip our younger generation to deal with global issues that might involve multiple jurisdictions really challenging fee to be in but it does open up a huge range of career options you may choose to be a litigating lawyer work itself firm becoming legal advisor, social worker, researcher and academicians, a judicial officer, a defense personnel, or anything else it’s a noble profession law gives you the opportunity to help people get justice don’t make money or food do your bit money will follow profession does not guarantee overnight success the journey is tough especially for first-generation lawyers but perseverance is the key, as they say dreams don’t work unless you do, unless you are prepared to work hard then yes this is the career for you and the work is your voice
Question8: What is the one quotation you live by your life?
Answer: Choosing one quotation, so as mother Theresa famously said I alone cannot change the world but I can pass the stone across the water to create many ripples so whenever wherever I speak it’s my words in touch even a single person makes them think and challenge their own stereotypes, prejudices and discriminatory practices, I think my job is done.
