Govt extends portal against harassment to private sector
NEWDELHI: For women employees facing sexual harassment at work in the private sector, lodging a complaint is just a click away.
The Union women and child development (WCD) ministry, which launched online complaint filing system SHE-BOX in July for women employed in the government, on Tuesday extended the service to the private sector as well.
The portal is hosted at the ministry’s website where any woman who has faced sexual harassment or abuse at work can log in and report the incident.
“Now women working anywhere across India can lodge their complaint in SHE-BOX. A separate cell in the ministry monitors the complaints. In case of private companies, the ministry will ensure there is proper redressal. If a company fails to act, it will be liable for action under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act,” WCD minister Maneka Gandhi said. In case of govern- ment employees, the ministry forwards the complaint to the ministry/department concerned and conducts a follow-up to see what action has been initiated.
Gandhi said since July, the portal had received 346 complaints and the ministry was following up on each one of them.
Though Parliament cleared the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act in February 2013, its implementation has been patchy so far.
Many organisations are yet to set up a fully functional internal complaints committee (ICC) to handle sexual harassment grievances, a mandatory requirement under the law. At present, there is no centralised mechanism to collect data on how many complaints have been registered and disposed off under the Act. The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) started collecting data since 2014 under the category of insult to the modesty of women (section 509 of IPC) on office premises. In 2015, the latest year for which figures are available, the NCRB registered 119 cases and chargesheeted 71 people.