BANGALORE: Women journalists can heave a sigh of relief since the ban on night shifts for women employees — to be enforced by the State Government through the Karnataka Shops and Commercial Establishments Act — does not apply to them, as the service conditions of journalists are governed by a Central Act.

Sources in the Labour Department explained that the service conditions of journalists were governed by The Working Journalists and other Newspaper Employees (Conditions of Service) and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1955.

This Act supersedes the State Act, which provides for banning night shifts for women employees.

This has quietened the alarm in media circles following a recent interview by Labour Minister Iqbal Ansari in which he said women journalists in the "print media" would be barred from working beyond 8 p.m.

The State Government has decided to strictly enforce the provision banning night shifts for women in shops, commercial establishments and hotels. Accordingly, employers cannot make their women employees work beyond 8 p.m. after the relevant Government Order is issued.

The Labour Department has made it clear that the ban would not apply to IT and ITES firms and industries.

Minister slammed

Labour Minister Iqbal Ansari, who is in the eye of a storm over the move to ban women from night shifts, has created another controversy by saying that women working late hours is "against Indian tradition".

Karnataka Women's Commission chairperson Pramila Nesargi called this an effort to "push women back into the four walls of a house".

Ms. Nesargi is convening a meeting of women's groups to discuss the night shift ban.

Donna Fernandes of Vimochana, a women's organisation that is contemplating filing a public interest litigation petition challenging the ban, described the Minister's comments as "outrageous". "What is this Indian tradition he is talking about? Women are harassed inside their homes. Is that also Indian tradition," she asked. The Minister would do well to "open his eyes and see that things are changing around him" and realise that tradition is not stagnant, she added.

Echoing similar views, K.S. Vimala of Janawadi Mahila Sanghatane said that citing inadequate police force as a reason for banning women from night shifts and taking shelter under tradition was nothing short of shirking his responsibility as a Minister. "He should be taking stringent measures to check harassment rather than asking women to stay indoors after nightfall," she said. "By his own logic, what should women who face harassment inside homes do? Commit suicide?"

Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee general secretary M. Ramachandrappa has said that the JDS)-BJP coalition is trying to take women back to the days of Manu Dharmashastra.

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