The Hindu Business Line : Shipping cos told to put in place policy against sexual harassment

Talegaon (Pune), March 14 In a move that could come as a respite to women looking to join the maritime industry, the Director-General of Shipping would be sending out a circular soon to all shipping companies to put in place a policy against sexual harassment.

“We are going to send out a circular to ask every company to put (sexual harassment policy) that in place if they have got even one woman working with them onshore and offshore,” said Ms Kiran Dhingra, Director-General, on the sidelines of a seminar titled ‘Women in Shipping — Managing Sea Change’ organised by Tolani Maritime Institute.

She told Business Line that the circular would be sent within a week’s time.

Conducive workspace

The policy, she said, is to address issues related to women in the maritime sector and encourage a conducive work environment for them.

Although she did not reveal any figures pertaining to sexual harassment cases in the industry, she cited a recent case of a woman who complained of unwelcome advances by a shipping mate and pointed out that the company did not have a harassment policy or committee in place to deal with the issue.

manpower shortage

She added that if manpower shortage in the maritime industry needs to be met, women have to be taken in. As India is not a land of seafarers by “nature and habit”, the need for drawing women into the sector will continue to grow, Ms Dhingra said.

Also, attitudinal change towards having women aboard ships and in the maritime sector needs to come in from the employers as well as from the society, she said.

The Director-General said that shipping is possibly a sector that has the least number of women working in it. “There are currently 19 CDCs (Continuous Discharge Certificate-cum-Seafarer’s Identity Document) in the last one year. In the last five years, when the policy has been opened up and women have been given admissions into maritime training colleges, we anticipate that about a 100 women have moved in,” Ms Dhingra said.

It would be quite interesting to note that in the Philippines, 93 per cent of women in the maritime sector work among Rating class! However, the world over women seafarers constitute less than 2.5 per cent, she added.

More Stories on : Gender | Shipping

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
The making of country’s first private greenfield airport

Domestic airlines worry over operations at new airport

New Hyderabad airport commercial operations delayed

Paramount hopeful of pan-India presence in two years

Mobile phone to replace airline boarding pass soon

‘Foreign operators to dominate containerised sea-borne trade’

Shipping cos told to put in place policy against sexual harassment

Scrap disposal helps Rlys mop up Rs 2,355 cr in 11 months

RITES, Ircon to get relief on Iraq projects