Prathidhwani Women Forum is the women wing of Prathidhwani and is collective of all women employees in Technopark. Women force form a major part of the Technopark IT community contributing to above 15,000 of the total workforce at Technopark. The issues, conflicts and concerns faced by the Women in IT is different owing to the unusual work timings including shifts compared to other jobs. Also, this in turn leads to the primary concern of safety and security of women both inside and outside the offices. As an aftermath of the multiple concerns that women in IT face.
Prathidhwani Women Forum was formed in 2016 when Rasila Raju, an IT employee was murdered at office, which is often assumed to be the safest place owing to the multiple security measures that Companies take, a large number of women employees joined to conduct rally and raise the issues of women security under this forum. About 200 employees participated in the march holding placards stating ‘Safety is primary. Also as a part of the same, Prathidhwani Women forum collected suggestions from the employees and had presented the representation to honourable Chief Minister Sri. Pinarayi Vijayan and DGP Sri. Lokanath Behra. Currently, Women forum has over 200 women employees as members in the official WhatsApp group where multiple concerns are raised and taken up by the group to higher authorities which resulted in the start of Pink Patrolling at Technopark, Women Aid Post at Technopark.
Also, recently an issues of sexual harassment that a women employee raised against an uber driver was also taken up and action was taken by the Kazhakootam police. This was possible as a group as women are dissuaded to complaint of the harassments they have to face however small or large the problem is for fear of moral policing and due to lack of support of family. Under the collective, as a group we were able to reach out to the police authorities and file complaint anonymously. As an outcome of this complaint, multiple complaints surfaced and we were able to deal with them as an organization. Prathidhwani Women forum now exists as a voice and platform to all the women IT employees to voice their concerns faced both at offices and outside the Technopark premises.
As a collective, our aim is to foster an environment where women are able to work without fear in Technopark and also to develop a culture where women are able to work efficiently, safely and are at ease at their workplace.
Interested women employees can reach out to the following contacts:
Aishwarya Syam (Women's Forum General Convenor)
+91 94007 42091
Sreeni Dony (Women's Forum Joint Convenor)
+91 96567 30449
Shari Gauri (Women's Forum Joint Convenor)
+91 81294 66431
Amritha (Women's Forum Joint Convenor)
+91 94977 88509