Gender Training with Employees of The Lalit

On Thursday, 17th May, Ms Pratishtha Arora and Ms Priyanka Londhe, conducted a “Gender Sensitization Training” with 30 employees of The Lalit. The participants were a mixed batch, consisting of senior management to front desk employees.

The training began with the activity “Gender Fence”, which highlighted the need for thinking out of the box. This was followed by some interactive and engaging activities beginning with the Ball Game (a ball was thrown to a participant, who was given a word and then was asked to share an associative word. Some of the words provided to the participants, and the corresponding responses were –

Gender – male and female; we all should be equal
Patriarchy – male power
Power – men have it
Equality – opposite of discrimination
LGBTQ – respect
Gender inclusive – including all

The training stressed upon the need of making the workplace gender inclusive and gender friendly. It was observed that even though the participants had undergone a training session on Gender Sensitization earlier, but only few of them had clarity on the conceptual framework.

The next session was focused on the communication and behavioural change. The trainer asked the participants what is their understanding about the term ‘Communication’. Some of the responses were: talking to each other, verbal, non verbal, lack of communication, miscommunication. This was further detailed with an activity – Tanagram. During the course of discussion it was noted that many of the participants agreed on the loophole of communication and how it leads to miscommunication. The crux of the discussion was to question peers even if there is a doubt about any task assigned.

The last session focused upon the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Legislation 2013. The trainer spoke about the keywords of the law – Sexual Harassment, Employee, Employer, workplace, types of sexual harassment, constitution and functioning of Internal Complaints committee, as well as how to file a complaint. It was observed that during the training session, many of the employees were not aware about the sexual harassment of women at workplace legislation. It was suggested to the team that there should be more such frequent training sessions so as to make the workplace more gender sensitive and inclusive.