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Sexual harassment must go

30 November 2009

When Karma went to obtain a signature for a government document from a senior government official, the official welcomed her in a friendly manner. However, next hour of Karma’s life was full of embarrassment and humiliation against her humanity. The official grabbed her hand tight and pulled her toward him and held her right next to him. After chatting for sometime, the official told karma, with a chuckle, to accompany him on his official tours outside of Thimphu. Karma, of course, did not know how to respond.
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Right before Karma left from the official’s room, he gave her a hand shake and, this time, started scratching her palm with his index finger. Karma felt very humiliated and left the office in a hurry. The sense of indignity of the sexual harassment she faced still haunts her, but there is little she can do or turn to for help because the official has all the power to punish her if she utters anything against him.

The above incident is not an isolated one. Many such incidents are repeated in offices of many high officials in Thimphu, and I think we need to do something about it.

The Human Rights Council meeting in December in Geneva is approaching, and Bhutan is confident that human rights in the country are guaranteed with the ideals of GNH. Number of factors, however, need to be considered to be able to address this with confidence on the basis of the real meaning of GNH in the day to day life of the common people.

Women and children’s right in Bhutan is often overlooked under the power of bureaucracy where majority of the high positions are held by men. Moreover, Bhutanese society has been under strong traditional hierarchy systems where a few high government officials often exploited the poor illiterate to fulfill their wild desires in the past. The common people would not dare to speak out against those officials for the fear of extreme reprisals such as loss of job or indirect punishments. By taking the advantage of these facts, those who possess the power are misusing their authority to indulge in sensual pleasures with many young women in the country. Such cases of sexual harassment take place both in oral and practical ways in their offices, villages and even overseas while they are on official tours with their female subordinates. They persuade the young women into their offices and private rooms. Evidence of this is the growing number of children fathered by officials on tour in the countryside.

Over the years, it is said that as more people became educated and aware of such misuse of power, these things have been declining and it is hoped that what you see today are just the remnants of those practices of the past. However, even today many young women are routinely victimized though most of the cases go unreported. It is very shameful on the part of the officials not only as Buddhists, who are supposed to practise compassion and self discipline, but also for simply being barbaric and inhuman.

Without recognizing and accepting these concealed facts of harassment of young women and punishing those who are taking advantage of their power, I wonder if Bhutan would be able to stand and claim that human rights are guaranteed under GNH. Where is the idea of GNH and basic human rights in this context? We must eliminate this phenomenon to let all citizens of the country achieve basic contentment and security in the society.

By Tshering Dendup
Motithang, Thimphu
tshering_dendup85@yahoo.comby

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Posted by Bhutan Observer · Filed Under Voices 

Comments

6 Responses to “Sexual harassment must go”

  1. Dan on November 30th, 2009 4:34 pm

    this officials are behaving like … DOG.. they are DOG in human form… GNH is GIRL NAPE HAPPINESS this DOG officials… by the way don’t get offended if u r not the one… but mind this will bring dam punishment to you if u r there…

    It seems we must install CCTV first in such all big offices instead of in the transport in traffic…

    We have all old standing ministers who were once officials so they know the game that is why they are silent despite raising this issue no of times…

  2. kijuan on December 1st, 2009 7:21 pm

    this is badd

  3. ugyen on December 2nd, 2009 12:49 pm

    too bad….

  4. Sonam on December 4th, 2009 4:54 pm

    By going through the report of Mr. Tshering Dendup, “sexual harrassment must go” such practice is illegal and not as per the pattern of office decorum. We are human being where there is time and place to act. We should respect each other in the office as office is decorated with photoes of Kings and Lamas. Such behavour is a SIN and unlawfull act.

  5. Zangpo on December 7th, 2009 12:46 pm

    “Awa nangna shagdi, Chikha lay rawa chabdi khun mey” (Thief inside, fence outside) as the Bhutanese saying says so. If above story is true, we cannot stop even by tough rules and regulations. This is because, they (above officers themselves) are the implementers of those rules. Because of those ill-mannered officers in our offices, our rules get weaker and such type of corruption prosper in our society which we could not help support such victims without any support to those who fight for such social ills. If we speak against those ills, we are being treated as Ngolops or undedicated to citizen. So we have to remain silent although we feel the pains in our heart.

  6. Ugey on December 18th, 2009 11:50 pm

    Dan, that was a big insult to Dogs.

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