ILO Convention 190

The most important factor in increasing women’s employment is access to safe transport. In India, women often have no choice but to decline job opportunities that are far from home or that do not have proper transport connectivity. Forced immobility of women is a consequence of the violence and insecurity faced daily during the commute to and from work.

The #MeToo global movement gathered huge momentum in India and had ripple effects in many sectors in the country, with some high-profile celebrities being called out for their perpetration of sexual violence. The movement highlighted the global epidemic of gender-based violence encouraging survivors to disclose and report and resulted in increased levels of reporting. These factors fuelled discussions in the global campaign to win the International Labour Organization (ILO) convention 190 (C190) concerning the elimination of violence and harassment in the world of work.

Continuous lobbying and campaigning by the global trade unions’ movement and civil society organisations to address violence and harassment at work, resulted in the ILO launching a standard-setting process in 2015. C190 is the first legally binding international standard for workers, which deals solely with the issue of violence at work, and recognises gender-based violence.