Some words and concepts are the string you pull to unravel the factory. Workplace is one of them. A quick search engine exercise on workplace versus workspace creates a general understanding and a more general confusion! Here is how it goes, ‘place’ being a physical location, and ‘space’ being oddly both particular to the individual as well as the broader space of environment and work context. One may stretch the workplace according to the individual’s personal perspective, for example, a desk and chair, cubicle design, or a laptop, or the cattle-shed next to where the goats graze. One may also stretch it to cover a work context such as business, marketing or social justice and child rights. One may wonder, is your home, your bedroom, your kitchen, also your workplace? Is your workplace also your workspace? Most definitely. A 2015 post on LinkedIn asks: What does a ‘workspace’ mean to you? This writer speaks of “a personal constellation of meaning to be shared” and also, “I expend time and energy to shine my own unique life light,” ending their post with “Perhaps workspace is a state of mind.” From state of mind to state of tech, there are apps and offerings for enterprise, productivity and collaboration, on your cell phone, on your server.
That busy space in your head
All of this together is more than a physical, location-specific understanding of workplace. It’s the space in your head and spirit, affirming who you are, your sense of belonging in society, your right to swim in the sea with all the other fish.
Let’s begin here instead of, at this point, reaching out for definitions that take us into industry, unorganized sector, migration, child labour or sex work. Let’s start with what is close to the understanding of each person, and does not require a lawyer to explain the importance of gender neutral laws, or how to get a certificate that brings the protections and empowerment promised by the concept of rights and equity.
Work is what we do from the moment we emerge into the world. A world where we cry for a meal, laugh, make eye contact and say mama-dada-chocolate for a reward, and learn new things such as toilet habits beyond the nappy, as well as crawling, walking and staying in school for half a day, every day. Everything is about the right to swim in that sea doing our thing. When they count our toes with satisfaction, ah ten, or shock, because we don’t meet the criteria of accepted numbers, in the back of the mind there’s a picture of a human being successfully making noises, dancing under the sun or moon, for a meal, marriage and a reward. A little joy. That’s us.
Sexuality is inextricable from headspace and identity. Most of us spend most of our lives expressing, exploring or repressing a complex and changing sexuality. Whether or not we think about this, sexuality is in the backdrop of most of our choices, decisions and perceptions. How you think about what to wear, or whether being fat, thin, fifty or fifteen suits you, or does not suit someone, somewhere, has to do with sexuality. Whether or not a candidate is considered for a job, or even has access to it, long before the nuances of workplace and space unfold, has everything to do with sexuality and sexual expression. “Women have babies after marriage, risk factors increase when you hire married women,” is a sentiment many probably agree with, even if they’ve learnt not to say it. Some haven’t even learnt that much.
Workplaces can be healing spaces, where we expand our abilities and capacities, swim free with all of the ability, support and energy available to us. This is tragically ironic at this time. Media, politicians, citizens, my friends, strangers on the Internet, are enraged and expressing their thoughts and feelings about the Kolkata medical college case. A trainee doctor at R G Kar Medical College and Hospital was found in the seminar hall, murdered after being sexually assaulted. A news article tells me all I ‘need to know’ about it. It is possible someone may read this Issue In Focus of In Plainspeak, written in August 2024, a few years later, and not want to access this news article. I know this because I remember, as do you, other cases and news articles, as tragic, black and ironic.
But do we have all we need to know? What’s really going on?
Human society is forced to define work and workplace across countries and societies, and to create laws that are supposed to empower people. There are many reasons for this. Injustice, discriminatory practices, threat to the physical, mental and emotional being of a person from abusive, oppressive persons. These persons have busy head spaces too, born into the same world, but subscribing to belief systems that revolve around acceptance of wrong. Often, in the name of protection, laws simply continue oppressive systems. The bee works. The ant works, so does the cat hunting the squirrel that’s secreting food in its cheek. All working. Whether or not they’re safe while they’re working depends on a whole combination of circumstances. These included being hunted, acts of God like flashfloods, and their own life and work skills. However, they are not sexually assaulted and murdered for gender and sexual expression. The cat does not say, you’re a transgender squirrel, gonna get you fucker.
We need to expand the way we look at work, the workplace and the human being, understanding our approach to sexuality, society and each other.
Pause for a little black humour, as they teach you to pray, tie Rakhis on the wrists of this world of brothers, who are not allowed to be sisters, and keep it ironic: “If men feel the urge to assault, they should have male friends/colleagues perform martial arts on them until the urge disappears.” The Instagram user posting this is angry, understandably, and the post is an expression of anger. Comments give a sense of a polarized, binarized argument, a sense of men = accountability, women = fear. Is this what’s going on?
What’s going on?
Lets see what the law says. The Law. Fallback of the tiny human left gaping at other tiny humans delighting in harming another, or baying for the blood of those that harm others. We are shocked, then we return to the commute, sign in, log on, pay medical insurance and thank God if we work in places that reimburse us. We also thank God we’re not one of ‘those others’ that require procedures that are not covered by insurance or reimbursable. Better to just fit in, log in and leave gender-affirming surgery to those who can afford it, financially, emotionally, socially.
This online article asks, Does The New Criminal Code (BNS) Protect Men And Trans Persons From Sexual Violence? The writer points out “Institutional understanding of sexual violence is often informed by patriarchy and misogyny. Courts, police and lawmakers are all prone to this bias. The institutionalisation of such patriarchal notions about sexual violence and victimhood not only greatly harms women who face sexual violence, but renders invisible other victims.” Also, “while women are predominantly affected, people of all genders can experience sexual violence. It is thus essential for institutions and policy-makers to create legal provisions for survivors, regardless of gender. While some – albeit limited and imperfect – legal protections existed in India for male and transgender survivors, with the BNS replacing the IPC, these legal protections have also been taken away.”
Trying to wrap my head around this, I read: “On June 16, Suraj Revanna, the brother of Prajwal Revanna was arrested by Hassan Police on Saturday night after a JDS party worker filed a complaint alleging that he was sexually assaulted by Suraj at his farmhouse on June 16.”
For the sake of this Issue In Focus, I absolutely must ask, was the JDS party worker, working? At work? Is the farmhouse a workplace, a workspace? The article referred to explains: “Now what if, the same incident came out after 15 or 20 days, that is post July 1, 2024? Ideally nothing should be different, and Suraj Revanna should be charged with the same sections. However on July 1, 2024, is the day when the new criminal acts come into force. The Bharatiya Nyaya Samhita, 2023 (BNS) has replaced the Indian Penal Code, and interestingly enough has scraped out Section 377 completely. The new law only allows for the concept of rape to be limited to a situation where the perpetrator is a man, and the victim is a woman. All other cases where the victim is a non-cis gendered woman, then would find solace in the section prescribed for grievous hurt, which is a bailable offence with the term of imprisonment extendable for up to 7 years.”
In Chennai earlier this year, February, a software engineer, a trans woman, was assaulted by a group of men. Apparently they thought she was kidnapping children. All the concepts that are significant to us are in this sentence. Software engineer, lets us assume this is a working professional. Does her place of work accept responsibility for the safety of employees when they are not at a physical location, at a time that may be considered as work-related time? Trans. Here’s what’s happening around the employment of trans persons: “White-collar jobs are hard to find with blatant discrimination and being treated as ‘token hires’ making them even harder to hold onto.” This article tells us, “A 2018 study commissioned by the National Human Rights Commission found that over 96% of India’s transgender persons were denied jobs and forced into low-paying, and sometimes unsafe work. Although 80% trans people met eligibility requirements but were still denied jobs, stated the study.” Assaulted. A lawyer reading this can decide which law to fix this assault into, or what crime this assault represents. Is it a hate crime? Does India have hate crimes, and how are they defined? Men. Men as a concept alone can blow your mind. What is a man? What is a group of them? Does the workplace have bigger groups of men than people who do not identify as men?
There’s a lot I don’t see online. I don’t find articles on hate crimes in India against / assault of, transgender men. What does this mean? Nothing like this is going on? Attitudes to transgender men are great, they’re getting good jobs, they’re safe, saving up for a cushy retirement? As per the National Crime Record Bureau’s report, Crimes in India 2022, “NCRB data registered no cases of rape, sexual or physical assault or mob lynching in which transgender persons were victims.”
Let’s pick something familiar of relevance to this theme. POSH. Riding on the shoulders of one who knows more than I, an insight or a few shared from this article, Gender Neutrality and POSH Law:
“Why is it that only women are given legal protection?”
“Where should men go to file a complaint if they are sexually assaulted?”
“For that matter, where should any other gender go to file a complaint?”
It is true that the Act may sound a little biased towards women. Debates are still going on.
Even though, the Act was introduced to protect equality and diversity in organizations, ironically it beats the purpose because none other than women are protected by the Act. While women feel empowered, others may feel discriminated. What is the solution to this?
One may think, making the organizational POSH policy gender neutral is a possible solution. This would mean anyone can file a complaint in front of the IC and gives IC the power to investigate cases for all genders. Though this looks like an apt solution, there a few legal complications with it.
The organizational policy drafted according to the Act cannot be gender neutral because the Act does not allow it.”
The Act does not allow it. Now that’s a perspective and it may well be legally tenable.
Emerging from the artificial boxes that fragment us – we’re really too big for these boxes
We could keep this simple and discuss workplaces and sexuality in a clearly contained way. This is a workplace. This is an employer, this is an employee, these are the laws. Communication like this may help us in these concrete ways. They give us starting points for containment and understanding of what is spilling out into the mess of birth to death discrimination and injustice. Yes, a report, Deloitte no less, has given a figure, 46%, and a gender, women, and identified safety at work and during commutes as a big issue this 46% has identified. Or communication like this, from an engaged, thinking, feeling person, who shares a story that has touched them: “Today in Ahmedabad, I booked an Ola Cab to reach railway station. The confirmation message mentioned name of driver as Archna Patil. She is Archna. A remarkable lady. Driving an Ola Cab perhaps isn’t so remarkable but, I was happy to see her driving so effortlessly and so well.” The person who posted this goes on to share, ” She didn’t even know to ride a bicycle. In 6 months, she learnt driving and obtained a licence. Those who are in Gujarat, they know that having a pakka licence is a very tough job. Driving tests are very tough.”
Here are the people – women, here are their jobs, workplaces and spaces related to that work, here is a tangible piece of thought, an approach. But it is an approach that is, by its very tangibility, also narrow, a restrictive box.
How do we map the cross-sections of life? Age, gender identity, ability, sexual orientation, economic imperatives, politics, historical marginalization, emotional and mental health and wellbeing, socio-cultural stereotypes and norms. Are these not the hidden features lurking at every corner of this terrain? It is in the increasing opportunities created to explore and reveal these, to discuss them in all spaces, home, community, public policy and the courtroom, that will unbox what’s in this box.
We need a return to ourselves, to our humanity. Accepting that each of us has the right to be here, identifying as we do, seeking support, giving support. This implies that implementing justice, equality and safety at the workplace, creating environments affirming of one’s self and sexuality, begin a long way before the personnel and HR department drafts a contract letter or a policy document. In fact, this implementation begins way before legal definitions of employer, employee, and employment are slapped upon a person who achieves adulthood by the miracle of a number of birthdays, 18 of them. 18 birthdays spent swallowing beliefs about gender and sexuality, identity, rights, privileges, power, patriarchy and the capitalistic model of economic advancement.
It is time to investigate what we mean by the right to life and the right to freedom. An individual is born and sex is assigned to them at birth, by an other – a person who knows nothing about the future gender identity of the person whom they are designating as male or female. This gender identity is now going to be drawn by society’s norms based on that sex assigned at birth. The individual has lost something of their identity, their right to self-expression, their right to be, their right to evolve. The workplace, 18 years later, is held responsible for protecting or accepting this individual in their entirety. So the workplace is really in the eye of a storm that began elsewhere.
This does not mean workplaces may abrogate responsibility for what is now firmly in the ambit of the workplace. Perhaps transformation can ripple out from here, providing the supports, rights and protections of freedom curtailed everywhere else. This would mean a ground-up restructuring of the purpose of a workplace. It would mean understanding that work is at the core of us and that the workplace must serve us, as much as the other way around. This is big. Consider it. Because the workplace is already a key piece of the larger picture, one where human society, human life and freedom, and sexuality, are bursting at the seams of the shape they have taken. A shape that does not suit us.
People of all genders, with diverse abilities, are people, with rights. The workplace made room for crèches decades ago, recognizing just how much time and life working mothers / parents invest into work. The spirit behind such recognition must expand to the right of every human being to enjoy the safety and freedom to be who they are, as they engage with the world, working anywhere, earning a living, saving for retirement, dreaming their dreams, planning their futures.
Cover Image: Photo by Hiroko Yoshii on Unsplash
