Rina Mukherji's case against The Statesman
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| Network news |
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| Rina Mukherji's case against The Statesman |
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It
is heartening that more and more women are daring
to speak up about sexual abuse at the workplace.
A case in point is the labour lawsuit filed by
Rina Mukherjee, former senior reporter, The
Statesman, Kolkata, that has rocked the media
fraternity for the past few months.
Recruited by the reputed media house on June 10,
2002, she braved a nightmarish battle against
her harasser (both professionally and sexually)
for almost over a year. Rina had taken up the
Statesman job after a five-year sabbatical
-- due to the birth of her daughter -- and she
didn't want to risk losing it. But when all efforts
to ward off Ishan Joshi failed, Rina had no choice
but to verbally complain to the managing editor
of The Statesman, Ravindra Kumar. But,
instead of Joshi being punished, she was victimised
yet again and asked to quit on October 12, 2002. On the advice of some friends, she got in touch with the Bengal Women Journalists' Network, the state chapter of the Network for Women in Media, India. After a brainstorming session with the Network members, protest letters were shot off to The Statesman. The Network did all it could to spread the word among concerned persons and encouraging responses have been flooding in from all parts of the country. Though Statesman questioned the authority of the Network to stand up for Rina, it set up the Sexual Harassment Complaints Committee in both its Delhi and Kolkata offices after receiving the Network's letter in February 2003. Rina
has also sought the help of the West Bengal Commission
for Women. The Commission, apart from its letter
to The Statesman to conduct an enquiry
into Rina's sexual abuse complaints, also forwarded
her case to the office of the Labour Commissioner,
the police and The Human Rights Law Network (under
the guidance of the Calcutta High Court's Sexual
Harassment More on Rina's case:
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