From the President’s desk-2: Towards Inclusive Communication...

I may not be young, but I too have a dream!

The dream of contributing to PRCI emerging as a truly ace and premier communication platform.

Ever since I have been appointed as the President of the National Executive, I have been flooded with greetings and goodwill messages which are full of enthusiasm to do something new. It’s nice to so much of energy and eagerness to take PRCI to new heights. While it is natural for us to expect the youth among the PRCIans to show lot of promise, it is equally heartening to note that even the veterans are full of ideas. What is even more important is the fact that they all love new ideas. And one common thread that holds us all together is the determination to keep the PRCI flag flying.

Over the past decade since its formation, PRCI has come a long way, but we have miles to go. The field of communication is rapidly changing with technology serving as the enabler. We have begun to use the technology in a unique way.

Perhaps for the first time, we at PRCI have launched our e-Mag truly online at no cost at all. You must have seen http://prrapport.blogspot.in/ which has caught the imagination of not only PRCIans, but the communication world around.

It's a big wow! As I key-in  this message, PRapport has crossed the record 500-page views mark in a short span. The audience wise breakup is: India 353. US 141. UK 4 and one each in Spain,  Kuwait, Maldives and Turkey. Thank you friends, let’s look forward to 1000 soon and as Mr S K Kaul says 100,000 mark!

PRapport is one of the many ways to stay in touch on a continuous basis. Do keep visiting and commenting and contributing. Please send your reports, pictures, videos to me. The subjects could be PRCI related activities, information that can enhance knowledge and policy issues that may have an impact on our profession.

As I have been talking and moving around, one question that I have been facing is: So, Mr President, what do you want us to do?

It is not the question of what I want the teams to do. It’s about all of doing it together as a team, and all chapters put together.

I have set this agenda for myself. Do correct me if I go wrong anywhere.

Strengthen PRCI Chapters: We need to plan and launch chapter wise activities which will culminate into at least quarterly zonal and half yearly national activities. But before that we need to activate our existing members and hen launch new, but a select, membership drive. Unless we have a broader representation, we cannot grow from the present position. I am sure all of you must be tired of seeing the same faces at conclave after conclave.

We did couple of unique activities for strengthening the participation at our recent conclaves. In Mumbai, we had an inter-collegiate contest and winners with their supporters participated in the 8^th Conclave. In Delhi, we had a large number of corpcom friends from PSUs joining us at the 9^th Conclave.

YCC: While we look at approaching senior professionals, we also should activate the YCC chapters. The mass communication and journalism students who join the YCCs will be our future brand members and even ambassadors.

Guest Faculty Pool: At Mumbai, we successfully experimented with initiatives like The Guest Faculty Pool and Knowledge Forums. The guest faculty pool is like a speakers’ forum from where we keep nominating professionals for lectures/presentations/seminars at mass communication colleges and the professionals include those from PR, Advertising and Media.

Knowledge Forums: For Knowledge Forums, we tied up with The Press Club where we conduct programmes on issues of general interest. For instance, we had a couple of media seminars with the BARC scientists on Radiation for crops and Urban Garbage Management. This helps us in increasing the awareness about PRCI in the minds of media fraternity. I am sure we can do at last one activity a month with the Press Clubs. Its cost effective and its useful.

Professional Training: At the 9^th Conclave, a suggestion cropped up on the need to train upcoming PR professionals in public and private sectors. Taking the NTPC example, we offered to work with the corporates on making their professionals industry ready. For this, we could take the help of senor journalists who are ever ready to share their knowledge and tell us on media expectations from PR in this ever changing world. For instance, cocktail dinners which were a vogue ten years ago, do not get any media response!

Fastest 500: With 25 chapters, if we look at a monthly activity each with Press Clubs and one YCC programme, we can look forward to 50x10+ 500 activities to report at the 10^th Conclave. It is an achievable target for all us of put together. I am sure the Zonal chairmen will all agree with me! Even if we achieve 200-activity target, we would have made a solid beginning.

The activities could be very simple – from addressing local issues to professional matters. Let me tell you how it works in Mumbai. The Press Club, being the partner,  gives us their 40-seater hall free. The hi-tea costs less than Rs 5,000. But the goodwill that we gain is priceless.

Website: The work on – www.publicrelationscouncilofindia.com – in progress and we should see it up and running soon. I am getting quite a bit of content from our headquarters in Bengaluru. I request all chapters to keep sending their activity information.

We have to make a beginning, let’s do it now.

Please send in ideas and suggested plans of action as we move on. More importantly, please guide me to do well.

Yours sincerely,

Comply or face jail: must comply with the Sexual Harassment Act

Organisations irrespective whether they have women employees 

or not must comply with the Sexual Harassment Act

How many women face sexual harassment at workplace? It could come in any form from indecent jokes, innuendos, ogling, inappropriate remarks, pictures and, text messaging and MMS. Women do not complain fearing job loss and stigma that one may get as a nasty cribber.  Some organisations even consider this harmless, while refuse to recognize the difference between a compliment and harassment. Do women have to suffer silently? Don’t they have any redressal mechanism? These incidents lead to a cycle of depression for the victim and ultimately lead to loss of morale, motivation and cause under performance and even absenteeism which contributes to a hostile work environment. Aggrieved women even feel insecure and quit jobs while organisations lose trained employees and the time and resources spent on training simply go waste. The government has brought out The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 on 9^th December 2013, but unfortunately most organisations do not seem to be aware of the need to comply with the law. In this interview to PRapport, Vishal Kedia, who has been advising companies thorough his company Complykaro, decodes the law and explains how women need not shy away from asserting their rights.

Question:What is the significance of the Anti-Sexual Harassment Law?

Answer:  The Government of India, on the directive of the Supreme Court, has brought out The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 w.e.f. 9^th December 2013 to create a safe, secure and conducive work environment for women.

Vishal Kedia making a special presentation at 9th Global
Communication Conclave on March 14, 2015

Organisation can no longer dismiss workplace sexual harassment with a ‘Chalta Hai’ attitude as it is their responsibility to ensure safety of all women whether employed in their premise or coming in contact with other people within their premises. It mandates that organisations employing 10 or more employees should have Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) at each of its location to tackle the complaints of harassment and gender bias.  Failure to comply with the law could lead to heft penalties, imprisonment and even closure of business. In fact a company in Chennai, where a woman complained of sexual harassment, was fined Rs1.68 crores for its failure to comply with the law. 

Question:How does one comply with the law? 

Answer: Apart from the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC), every firm needs to formulate an Anti-Sexual Harassment policy and publicise penal consequences of sexual harassment by putting up necessary posters.   All employees – male and female - must be made to undergo sensitization training programme so that they understand what constitutes sexual harassment and their rights and responsibilities as per the law.

Question: Is this law going to safeguard only those who are working in a particular company?

Answer: As per law, management of government offices and every private firm are responsible to ensure that no women (whether she is an employee or not) is sexually harassed within their premises. Even if a women is harassed at a mall, railway station or airport the management of such premises is legally obliged to assist the aggrieved women make a complaint against the accused, if she desires to do so.

Question: Tell us something about the ICC and how the committee needs to function?

Answer: At least 50% of the committee members must be women including the Presiding Officer who must be a woman employed at senior level within the firm.   There must be minimum two other employee members and an external member who is an Advocate or social worker from an NGO or association committed to the cause of women.  Such members must undergo skill training programme.

The ICC is mandatory at each location for any organisation employing 10 or more people, irrespective of men or women.  The companies need to file their compliance statement as part of their Annual Reports.

In case the complaint is against the management itself or in case the firm is a small outfit having less than 10 employees, the law provides for a district level Local Complaints Committee (LCC) setup by the Government for redressal of such complaints.

Question: What if any organisation fails to comply with the law?

Answer: The law is clear. As I said, non-compliance with the law can invite trouble for the managements, from fines to shutting down of businesses. They even face charges of abetment of the crime and criminal prosecution.

Question: Is the law applicable only to companies?

Answer: No. It is applicable to all, including associations, proprietorship, partnership firms, LLP, trust, society, clubs and sports events like marathons and matches, schools, colleges.

Question: What do you think of the awareness levels of the law?

Answer: Unfortunately, not many seem to be aware of the law. A quick survey by the field staff of Complykaro in Mumbai’s business districts of Nariman Point and Parel showed that less than three per cent of the big and small offices are aware of the law and most of even those do not have ICCs at each location or have done training of employees and committee members. That’s a sad situation. But I am happy that increasing number of women employees have now begun to take the issue seriously. They are complaining. My sincere appeal to all companies, groups and management is that they should comply with the law. Sooner the better, else be ready to suffer as women are asserting their rights.