Following close on the heels of the most horrifying rape and murder of 31-year-old female doctor at the RG Kar Hospital in Kolkata, India, during the wee hours of 9 August, was the rape attempt on a minor girl at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital on 19 August in Lahore. The barbarous Kolkata rape and murder is one of the most gruesome cases of femicide in recent years, and has rattled people on both sides of the border.
In the 19 August attempt in Lahore, had the mother of the five-year-old at the Ganga Ram Hospital not heard her cries and reached her in time, the already nauseating numbers of child sexual assault in the country would have gone up by one.
Yes, this is as crassly as incidents of rape – and attempted rape – involving women and minors are viewed by those investigating them and those at the helm of affairs. As our economic troubles mount and new mishaps make us forget the old ones, sensitivity and empathy towards repulsive and recurring incidents of rape witness a dip, often even failing to raise an alarm unless they go viral on social media, except among those directly affected by the outcome and impending threat of such heinous assaults.
As hundreds of lady doctors and medical students took to the streets on 21 August to condemn the attack on the minor at Ganga Ram, calling out the delayed response by hospital authorities, how many more women and young girls would have already been raped in the two neighbouring countries during the 10 days of strikes and protests that divide the two assaults, is a reality well known but not assimilated.
But it is the similar premises of the two incidents and allegations of the two hospitals’ authorities downplaying and trying to cover up the assaults that provide a parallel between them, even though they occurred borders apart. Protesting doctors at the Ganga Ram Hospital told the media that the rape attempt took place when the minor girl came to the hospital along with her mother, who had delivered a baby two days ago, and was there for a checkup.
Medical premises in Pakistan, especially those in the public sector, are usually not equipped with adequate and safe resources and facilities for female doctors. Lack of bathrooms, lodgings or resting rooms at hospitals, where female medical staff working long hours can rest safely, is a rarity.
Though women are not safe anywhere, the two incidents bring to the fore safety issues faced so often by all females but working women, in particular. Doctors, female patients and paramedics, call centre female staffers and women employed in services that work late into the night, often bear the worst brunt of these security lapses. At bus stops, late at night, young women can be spotted waiting for a bus or other public transport after finishing work. If harassed or attacked its these women who face society’s flak for exposing themselves to danger and for taking up jobs that necessitate late working hours. Victim-blaming is, perhaps, the easiest practice to resort to in a patriarchal society like ours, characterised by rampant execution of gender discrimination, GBV and disparity.
In the Kolkata case, the suspect is a civilian police volunteer, a position that gave him free access to all parts of the hospital. Similar situations exist at most government hospitals in Pakistan where unauthorised visitors and staff of outsourced services have easy access to all parts of medical facilities – something that constitutes a potential threat for all females on the premises.
During their house job, freshly graduated doctors in Pakistan are required to be on duty for long hours spanning days, where young doctors are also required to sleep at the hospital premises. The absence of safe and segregated resting spots for female doctors under such work requirements is an act of criminal negligence that can easily turn into opportunities for sexual harassment and assault.
Lack of safe working spaces for women in Pakistan is a reality that has held back countless women, over decades, from putting to use their best in terms of professional degree and competence, education and skills. Fear for their own safety, punctuated by family concerns for their wellbeing and security, have together led to utter waste of women’s potentials and propensities, as sexual harassment can lead to fear, anxiety, depression, lower self-esteem, alienation, and overall physical and mental health degradation that may force women to quit working.
The Kolkata and Lahore assaults are not a first, and if things continue the way they are, they won’t be the last
Sexual harassment violates women’s right to work like any other form of harassment that renders working environment unsafe and unhealthy for a person. It also leads to an overall loss of trust in people, loss of confidence, poor self-esteem, fear of being ridiculed, and suicidal ideations among the affected women.
The ensuing psychological trauma hinders effective performance of the victims. Morale goes down, which in turn, lowers productivity also leading to increase in absenteeism and attrition among the female workforce. It has spill-over effects on an individual's career growth, general wellbeing and peace of mind.
Statistics on workplace sexual harassment in Pakistan are shocking if one takes a look at several studies, including those conducted by the Alliance Against Sexual Harassment, AASHA. A research study conducted in Lahore by AASHA showed that over 58% of female doctors and nurses are sexually harassed, usually at the hands of other doctors, attendants, patients and visitors, while 100% of women in other professions suffered sexual harassment or abuse at workplace sometime in their lives.
In the year 2022 Pakistan’s Parliament adopted the Protection against Harassment of Women at the Workplace (Amendment) Act 2022. This amendment expands the definition of workplaces to encompass both formal and informal settings and goes beyond physical harassment, also covering gender discrimination. Following this act, in a significant step, the definition of an employee was extended to include not just contract workers, but also domestic, gig, temporary, part-time, freelance, trainees and home-based workers, that addressed almost 70% of Pakistan’s female workforce.
Women may not be half of Pakistan’s workforce but they constitute half of the country’s population. If this half feels unsafe at home, the workplace, on the roads, in public transport, it formulates a threat to half of our valuable human resource, since those not formally employed, still work in the informal sectors, as pointed out, and at home, cooking, cleaning, washing and raising children.
As if stepping out of the house as a woman to make a place and living for yourself is not challenging enough in a patriarchal world, imminent threat of objectification, sexual harassment and assault add to women’s trials manifold. Widespread toxic masculinity hits women in the face everywhere as they step outside the home, not to say how it haunts and traumatises them inside their homes too.
In response to the Kolkata horror, India’s Supreme Court has created a national task force of doctors this week to recommend steps to ensure women’s safety in workplaces, also suggesting the task force consider sweeping reforms. Security at medical establishments, separate resting rooms for female staff, adequate lighting across campuses, CCTV coverage, and creation of employee panels to conduct quarterly safety audits, were among the suggestions put forth.
Exposing harassers and rapists and due reprisals for the culprits can also go a long way to make workplaces safer for women. Women who have faced sexual harassment or assault often don’t speak up, because as children, girls are taught to be submissive, modest, inhibited and reticent. The dos and don’ts of their upbringing conditions them in a way that keeps them from expressing themselves.
Despite the fact that women’s safety and issues around it are discussed and debated more and more around the globe, every year the number of incidents of sexual harassment and assault are increasing at an alarming rate. The Kolkata and Lahore assaults are not a first, and if things continue the way they are, they won’t be the last.
It is important for a patriarchal world obsessed with success and excellence to bear in mind, though, that as in the words of Malala Yousafzai, “We cannot all succeed when half of us are held back.”