Gender Equality
Gender equality is an issue that affects us all; it is a human rights issue above all. SLD strives to eradicate discrimination between and within genders, and believes that gender equality must become a lived reality. As Maya Angelou says, “How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes”. Gender equality not only manifests in doing away with differences, but also celebrating and nurturing them. However, SLD strongly advocates against violence and harassment based on gender and gendered differences.
SLD has been working on gender-based violence in different sectors for almost a decade now. Through research studies and interaction with women workers, we observed that on most occasions women do not report cases of physical and sexual violence at the workplace for the fear of retaliation in terms of being terminated from work, being labelled as a woman with low morals within the family, at work and in the society. SLD believes that it is essential to create ‘safer workplaces and safer cities’ for low wage women workers which can only be attained through a narrative shift on the discourse on GBV and by building a collective voice comprising of various stakeholders including low wage women workers, women rights organization, human rights organization, business houses, government bodies (law enforcement agencies) and young people to address the prevalence of GBV at the workplace, home and in public spaces.