The West Bengal Anti-sexual Harassment Council at Women's Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (WICCI) is organizing its Virtual Launch on June 23, 2021 (Wednesday) at 6 PM IST. The Keynote Speakers for the event include Ms. Kavita Krishnan, Dr. Pallavi Guha and Ms. Anjuli Marwah.

About WICCI

WICCI is supported by the massive global and influential women's networks viz G100, All Ladies League (ALL), Women Economic Forum (WEF) and SHEconomy with 250,000 members and industry leaders, globally. Their aim is to mainstream women’s voices and uphold women’s interests in policy-making and in all echelons of decision-making, thereby educating and creating awareness about women empowerment and promoting business collaborations amongst numerous global communities. WICCI actively engages thousands of women entrepreneurs and professionals.

About WB-ASH Council

WB-ASH Council aims to spread awareness about prevention, prohibition, protection and redressal against harassment and abuse and to provide necessary assistance, to the extent possible, to any person who wishes to initiate legal action against their harassers. They strive to create a safe and enabling environment where no person is afraid to speak up.

About the Speakers

Ms. Kavita Krishnan is a communist feminist activist; she is Politburo member of the CPIML, and Secretary of the All India Progressive Women's Association. She is the author of Fearless Freedom (Penguin India 2020), a book on women's autonomy and the violence it faces in India. While emerging as one of the most influential activists during the massive anti-rape protests that followed the rape and murder of a 23-year-old girl in India's capital city, New Delhi, Ms. Krishnan has contributed substantially to shaping the discourse of the movement. Her views on death penalty have been influential in shaping the discourse around rape in the aftermath of the post 16 December anti-rape protests. 

She will be talking about why women's autonomy is more important than women's safety and how restrictions on women's autonomy work in households, educational institutions and hostels; and workplaces in globalised capitalism. She will be giving an insight into the political attacks on women's autonomy in recent times ("love jihad" laws and mob attacks, imprisoning of feminists and other activists, attacks on women-led movements) and how we should learn from history - corporations that helped "development" in Nazi Germany; how not to repeat this in India. 

Dr. Pallavi Guha is an Assistant Professor of Journalism at Towson University. She is the author of Hear #Metoo in India: News, Social Media, and Anti-Rape and Sexual Harassment Activism, recently published by Rutgers University Press. Her book was also part of Ms. Magazine's February list of feminist books and writers. Dr. Guha is a former journalist, researcher, and media educator with over a decade’s professional experience. She has worked for international media organizations, including BBC News and The Times of India. She has also won multiple awards and grants for her scholarship and teaching grants. Leading media organizations in the U.K., such as the BBC, and think tanks like Institute for the Future in the U.S. and Anamika Memorial Media Trust in India, have invited Dr. Guha as a speaker and editorial columnist to share her research expertise. Dr. Guha also is frequently invited as a keynote speaker at conferences and non-profits such as KAPPA PHI LAMBDA, Old Greenbelt Theater, and other organizations.

Dr. Guha will be talking about the impact of social media & media on sexual harassment awareness: her keynote will focus on the teachable moments through narrative and conversations around sexual harassment created on social media and media platforms. 

Ms. Anjuli Marwah graduated from National Law University Odisha in 2016. She is a Senior Associate at Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas, New Delhi, one of Asia's premier law firms. She regularly advises on labour and employment law matters pertaining to employee benefits, sexual harassment and discrimination claims, employee immigration, and transfer/transition of employees pursuant to cross border mergers. Ms. Marwah will be talking about the impact of the pandemic on sexual harassment cases in the Indian corporate sector and how employers need to sensitize the employees/Internal Committee members on measures to be taken to avoid sexual harassment in a Work from Home setting.