Women Employees Can Now File Harassment Complaints Online : Govt
Press Trust of India | New Delhi October 26, 2016
The women employees of the Central government will soon be
able to file sexual harassment complaints online.
The decision was taken at a meeting called by Women and Child
Development (WCD) Minister Maneka Gandhi today after she received complaints
from aggrieved women employees from various ministries.
Officials from Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT),
Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Railway Ministry, Sports Ministry and
Department of Financial Services were present at the meeting.
The e-platform for posting complaints will be hosted on the
Women and Child Development ministry's website, a senior official said, adding
the complaints will then be taken up with the respective
ministries/departments.
An inter-ministerial committee headed by a senior WCD
official will be constituted to review the status of the complaints. The forum
will also ensure that all Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) heads are
imparted training on how to resolve such complaints, he said.
It has also been decided that the DoPT will issue
instructions to ensure that training programmes for all services include a
module on Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and
Redressal) Act, 2013 to sensitise the government staff.
Additionally, the WCD ministry will issue guidelines for
dealing with sexual harassment complaints. These will include a monthly as well
as an annual report, to be prepared by the Internal Complaints Committee of
each ministry, on the status of complaints received.
The cadre controlling authority of a victim will be required
to monitor her progress for 5 years, in order to ensure that she is not further
tormented for complaining against a colleague, the official said.
A similar exercise for the private sector is also on the
anvil, he added.
The move comes after several women employees wrote to the WCD
ministry about delay in getting their complaints about sexual harassment
resolved.
Courtesy : www.business-standard.com