Ms Anjali Bedekar recently retired from her active and illustrious career as a Trade Union Leader. Outspoken and yet amiable leader, she is well known in banking sector for effectively representing women’s cause in India and later at international level.

Tell us about your upbringing. And how it shaped your personality.

My birth name is Anjali Chandavarkar, and my personality was shaped by my relationship with my father. He was an atheist and a progressive thinker who did not accept any thoughts without examining them. His way of thinking and rectitude influenced me. He taught me self-defence and also moulded my mind to feel equal others. I would say that I inherited the indomitable spirit from my father. Soon after turning eighteen, I got a job in the State Bank of India. That was in 1977. I completed my graduation through distance learning in Economics and Political Science.

You joined SBI when you were just eighteen. And you took up the cases of injustice in the branch. Tell us about it.

I did not start as an active union representative immediately after joining the Bank. As the practice existed then, most of the members of staff (in bargainable category) were enrolled as members of the union – State bank of India Staff Union (Mumbai Circle). It was affiliated to All India SBI Staff Federation (AISBISF), the national organisation representing SBI staff across India which had state-wise affiliates. The Officers’ union was also organised similarly. In both the cases, they were the only unions representing their members with the management. These unions were not affiliated to any political party, a unique feature since in the non-banking industry political leaders had organised the employees, and the trade unions were extended arms of the political parties.

Initially, for several years, I was only a member of the union. An incident in my branch pushed me to be active. I was working at a branch where two or three women were the victims of injustice, and they were quietly suffering without a murmur of a protest. I however took up their case and fought to get them justice. My questioning the authorities did not go well with them, and I was transferred to Saki Naka Branch which was considered punishment posting.

That earned you a punishment transfer. Tell us about your work at Saki Naka branch.

The location of this branch office was such that reaching from either the Central line or Western railway line would be inconvenient, actually very cumbersome. The roads were bad leading to bumpy travel which had resulted in miscarriages in the case of some women employees.

The Saki Naka branch had inefficient operations due to the mess in internal housekeeping. It resulted in women working long hours without additional compensation. Some of the male colleagues would help the women employees but only to claim overtime. And there were certain objectionable practices. While the bank had a declared policy of transferring staff after five years, the women employees were working there for thirteen years; they were clearly being discriminated against and putting to greater hardship. I with some other newly transferred colleagues raised my voice against malpractices and active discrimination. We made a representation to the Regional Unit of the Union which sent some union leaders. Their visit helped us to represent the case well.

You became the first woman President of SBI Staff Union Mumbai Circle representing all branches in Maharashtra and Goa. And later on, you joined UNI Global. You worked there as Director UNI Apro Equal Opportunity & Women Activities and also and UNI Indian Liaison Council Coordinator.

I was a member of Core Committee of our union for more than 10 years, holding various positions. The union was very well organised with voices of members being heard and women, watch & ward staff, messenger (peons) all having their own representatives in the Core Committee of the union. I learnt a lot about organising and representing and the working of trade union during those years. That is the foundation of all my work.

Later I did Masters in Globalisation and Labour from TISS under Global Labour University from ILO as a trade union sponsored candidate. AISBISF is affiliated to UNI Global Federation and while working in SBI I was nominated by AISBISF for many Women Empowerment programs organised by UNI. These programs made me aware of a larger picture about labour and especially position of women workers in the labour force.

I was invited as a resource person for many UNI APRO Women and Youth Empowerment programs while working in SBI. After I left SBI, I started working for UNI APRO.

As Coordinator for UNI Indian Liaison Council, we organised several women and youth empowerment programs, capacity building programs in Metro Cities and Tier II cities in India.

Later I was appointed Director, UNI APRO Equal Opportunities and women activities. I had an opportunity to work with women leaders from UNI affiliates across Asia Pacific Region. The issues taken up for campaigning by these women leaders in various countries showed the broad spectrum of issues faced by working women. Challenges to jobs, organising workers, Discrimination, Safety at workplace, ratification of C190, mental health,  Gender based violence, OHS, breastfeeding places at the workplace, making menstruation, maternity and menopause workplace issues, equal pay for equal work, climate change affecting woman workers, AI and tech affecting jobs of women were some of the major issues tackled by the unions and women leaders. All with the goal of achieving Gender Equality and having a voice in decision making structures of the unions. (See BBC Story – Mohamed Al Fayed accused of multiple rapes by staff)

Tell us about working women’s issues in India – when you started your career and as they are now, and also what you saw across many countries. Please tell us what is being done to address those issues.

Women in Asia Pacific region are aware of their rights and are active in struggle to get their rights irrespective of their ethnicities, nationalities, religions etc. Hence, we see women from Indonesian Unions have fought for menstruation leave and have an app developed for applying for leave and also want their privacy protected. Japanese unions are holding awareness meetings about health issues faced during menstruation. Bangladeshi women members campaigned for breastfeeding room at the workplace. Nepalese women have organised beauty parlour workers and fighting for their rights. Indian women in trade unions are struggling to get positions in decision making structures of the unions. Sri Lankan women have been crowdfunding to hold their activities on Gender Issues and also uniting women in different unions at the same workplace to fight their fight. Women in Malaysian unions have achieved positions at the highest level in the union structure. In Philippines, women are vocal and lobbying the govt to ratify C190, launching a massive social campaign to demand ratification. They also mobilised membership to support the organising of community health workers. There is solidarity network of women across affiliates of UNI APRO which I was actively supporting and coordinating as Director, Equal Opportunities of UNI APRO.

Ratification of ILO’s Convention C190 (see note below), Gender Based Violence, safety at the workplace, workplaces free from sexual harassment- any kind of harassment are very important issues and there is not enough public opinion building on it though the violence is widely reported and covered in media. Making a workplace safe for everyone needs to start from understanding the attitudes and changing the attitudes. Unions, NGOs- entire civil society needs to make it a priority. POSH Act 2013 has provisions for making the knowledge of LCC and other provisions to all employees mandatory for the employers. That is hardly followed. Trade Unions can play a great role and make the workplace “zero tolerance to harassment”. Every workplace has this violence and we have seen how women speak openly about it in our empowerment programs. However, it is my observation that if male participants are present, the women speak differently. There is an unseen male support system for the accused of sexual harassment which makes the victim feel guilty. This must stop and change. Sometimes women are not aware of Sexual Harassment definition under the law. Awareness creation in the society by constant education is very important.

(Editor’s note: ILO Convention C190 acknowledges that gender-based violence and harassment disproportionately affects women and girls, and requires an inclusive, integrated and gender-responsive approach which tackles underlying causes and risk factors, including gender stereotypes, multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, and unequal gender-based power relations.

C190 requires governments to adopt laws and regulations to define, prohibit and prevent violence and harassment in the world of work, including gender-based violence and harassment. (Quoted from ILO document Mini Guide C190 and R206).

It is the first international law to establish the right of everyone to a world of work free of violence and harassment, including gender-based violence and harassment. Working off of this premise, it extends its protection to all workers, no matter the status of the contract be it a freelancer or one hired through a third-party platform or volunteers or interns. It then goes on to offer a much wider definition of ‘workplace’. It takes into account not just the place of work, or place of work-related events, but also includes places where the worker is paid, takes a break or uses sanitary facilities, work-related communication, employer-provided accommodation and the way to and from work. (See The Curious Case of C190))

Vivek S Patwardhan

What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others/ All work copyrighted.