Mumbai: Making Mumbai a gender-friendly city is the new mantra of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) which launched a centre last week to protect women from sexual harassment at work places.
The Savitribai Phule Gender Resource Centre will provide a whole gamut of services, such as computer literacy classes, information kiosks and counselling, that will focus on the social empowerment of women.
"The centre is an offshoot of the BMC's Prevention of Sexual Harassment Committee formed in 2003 for women in municipal offices," Dr Neha Karandikar, Consultative Coordinator for the centre, told Gulf News.
Considering 50 per cent of BMC's employees are women, "we have a policy in place for the prevention of sexual harassment at work places whilst the Government of Maharashtra does not have one".
Already, 64 committees address such issues of women at the local level.
Heading this organisation will be the committee's chairperson, Dr Suhasini Nagda, Dean at Nair Dental Hospital, who is the seniormost among women officers in BMC's various departments.
The committee's Member-Secretary Dr Kamakshi Bhate of KEM Hospital said: "A preventive health clinic open to all girls and women will also be set up on the premises."
The centre will be a platform for NGOs, who are already working in the field, such as Akshara, Stree Mukti Sanghatna, Sneha and Lawyers Collective, to come forward and share their resources for complaints, redressal, counselling and training.
Akshara, which works with young women in educational institutions, working class neighbourhoods, destitute homes, hostels and work places, is one of the centre's partners.
