Porn in the Indian Workplace

Recently I got an mail from my ex-classmate (who happens to be working in bangalore in one of its better known software companies.)

It had a whole bunch of pics attached......"Girl pics"..Exposed breasts , genitalia et al.I wasnt surprised at all. Men will be Men. Nudity will be nudity. THe male fascination for the female body isn't about to vanish overnight.

But what surprised me is that this email had been sent to me , from my pal's "Company" or "Official" id. This id was given to him for so-called "official " use.Even more shocking.....before being forwarded to me, this email had been forwarded to a whole list of people -- people working in India's biggest s/w firms--again using company email ids.

The issue here isn't about pornography itself.Its bad,its immoral,its illegal..blah..blah...blahBut I'm not gonna discuss that. My contention is simply that,at least nudity and porn should be kept out of the workplace...

I was speaking about this , to one of my friends....He used to work in a services firm , down in chennai. He tells me that porn is common place in the Indian workplace...Stories of entire harddisks of porn being freely circulated and viewed..Pornography being downloaded (using the company's high speed connection - no doubt).... Nude women being used as screen wallpapers...are commonplace.The list is endless.

This is a time ,when women are making themselves seen in these companies...Granted..In most firms they still comprise 20%.. But I believe its high time companies took note of their responsibility to provide a decent working atmosphere from them. India's sexual harassment laws are stringent enough , and every company has a sexual harassment cell.If the laws were followed to the letter, half of us would be in jail.

Its about time,companies took a little notice of this.... They do have a responsibility towards their employees...and in anycase, it makes sense for them too..This has led to a HUGE wastage of time,money and resourses.

Where does this problem stem from ? and how do we correct this ? More in my next blog....