Delhi: IAS officer’s tweet triggers gender talks

NEW DELHI: North Delhi Municipal Corporation commissioner Varsha Joshi’s response to a woman’s plea about taking action on an unsafe street corner snowballed into a larger conversation about gender dynamics and safety of women at the workplace.
Joshi on Friday tweeted that she also faced “misbehaviour”, “entitled behaviour” and “violation of space” in her own office.

A Twitter user, Swati, posted pictures of a street corner saying it was very difficult for any woman to pass by as people sitting there kept staring, having huqqah and playing cards at all times of the day.“I have raised the issue earlier too, but no action was taken. Kindly take immediate action for assisting your people,” she added.

Joshi replied: “This is a challenge women face 24/7 across North India. I face it in my own office chamber — misbehaviour, entitled behaviour, and violation of my space by men who simply do not understand what they are doing (sic).”
The fact that even the corporation’s commissioner faces such behaviour in her own office invited a barrage of responses regarding safe workplace environment. Esha Pandey, an IPS officer, replied: “Change in attitudes, socialisation since birth and being corrected when problems are noticed, not just ignored with the maxim ‘boys will be boys’. It’s a long, long road (towards bringing change in attitudes).”

Mayor Avtar Singh said that no bad behaviour would be tolerated and Joshi was like a sister to him. Jai Prakash, chairperson of the standing committee, said, “While dealing with the public, we come across all kinds of people. There is such a large municipal workforce. We should be able to make people work.”
Replying to TOI in the debate, Joshi said she never expected so much conversation around the tweet, but she is really glad that it was happening. A 1995-batch IAS officer, Joshi is the first female municipal commissioner in Delhi.