Draft ‘Action Plan on Women’s Safety’ submitted to MHA

The draft will not be made public since it is still at a primary stage, an official said.

The Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) has submitted a draft “Action Plan on Women’s Safety” to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to strategise the government’s policy to make the country safer for women. As part of the MHA’s “Mission on Women’s Safety”, the MWCD tabled its draft earlier this week and it was discussed at a meeting between senior executives from both the ministries.

Requesting anonymity, a senior official in the MWCD said, “We have tried to create an action plan that is result-oriented and goes beyond simple awareness and campaigning. We have recognised the core problems that make the environment in cities and towns unsafe for women and have tried to introduce ideas that can be implemented at the national level in order to change the status quo.” The official further added that the draft will not be made public since it is still at a primary stage.

The MHA’s “Mission for Women’s Safety” was constituted by Government of India in the aftermath of the Kathua rape case in May this year. Other than being in the process of drafting an action plan, the MHA has also been assigned the charge of drafting a “National Policy on Women’s Safety” and has also asked several ministries to send recommendations for the same. The MWCD’s action plan might be used as part of the “National Policy on Women’s Safety”.

The government intends to launch the “Mission on Women’s Safety” on the lines of its earlier missions like Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Poshan Abhiyan, etc. The plan is still in its nascent stage, but is expected to reach a conclusive struc- ture in another four to five months.

A tentative outline of the “National Policy on Women’s Safety” is likely to deal with issues like sensitisation of school children on gender roles through changes in school curriculum, countering proliferation of pornographic content online, crimes against minor girls, introducing time-bound prosecution in rape cases, along with a national level media campaign on women’s safety, much like the ongoing ones related to the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan etc.

In another initiative to im- prove safety of women at the workplace, the MWCD released data on its “SHeBox” facility that reveals that since its launch in July 2017 till May 2018, the “SHe-Box” received a total of 196 complaints only. Out of these, 74 complaints were received by Government of India employees, 46 by state government employees and 76 from private sector employees.

Commenting on the unimpressive number of complaints received, a senior MWCD official said: “The purpose of the SHe-Box was to provide a convenient and anonymous online portal for those women who want to report sexual harassment. However, the SHeBox is not the only platform women have. There are internal complaints committees at companies and often these address the issues.”

The online complaint management system— “SHe-box” (Sexual Harassment Electronic Box)— hosted on the MWCD website, seeks to ensure “effective implementation” of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redresal) Act, 2013.

Once a complaint is submitted to the “SHe-Box”, it is directly sent to the internal complaints’ committee (ICC) of the ministry/ department/PSU/ autonomous body etc. concerned, having jurisdiction to inquire into the matter. The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation ( DMRC), which recently inaugurated the Magenta line and a section of its Pink line under phase III of its expansion project, is all set to open the remaining 69 km section by the end of this year, thus covering almost the whole of Delhi.

The 69 km section, which is yet to be opened, includes the stretch between the Durgabai Deshmukh South campus to Shiv Vihar in the Pink line, and a section between the existing Noida City Centre station to the Noida Electronic City in the Blue line and a section between the existing Dilshad Garden and New Bus Adda

The government intends to launch the “Mission on Women’s Safety” on the lines of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.

The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has dropped the idea of creating a single regulatory body to replace the University Grants Commission (UGC) and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), a source close to the ministry has said. Instead, the standing committee of Parliament has published a notice, seeking public views on how to reform the UGC. This move of the committee has put to rest all speculation about the Centre creating a new, single higher education regulatory body in the country.

Sources said that the MHRD had planned to replace the UGC and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) with a new institution tentatively christened as HEERA (Higher Education Empowerment Regulation Agency). The single regulator HEERA concept had the backing of the PMO and the Niti Aayog as well.

The sources said that though the government was keen on creating a wellstructured single regulator