The Women and Child Development ministry on Monday launched an online platform to enable women employees of the central government to file complaints related to sexual harassment at the workplace. Women employees of central government facing sexual harassment or abuse at workplace can now file their complaints at ‘SHe-Box,’ an online complaint box launched by women and Child Development ministry on Monday. The complainant can now visit online platform, hosted by the ministry’s website (www.wcd.nic.in), to report the incident.
Speaking at the launch event, Union minister Maneka Gandhi said the platform will cater to central government employees in the beginning and thereafter, its ambit will be widened to include the private sector as well. She also said that her ministry will soon start a national survey to assess the nature and magnitude of sexual harassment at workplace across the country.
The new online complaint management system also seeks to ensure “effective implementation” of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013.
“Once a complaint is registered, we will forward it to the ministry/department where the woman works. We will also follow it up with the respective ministry as to what action has been initiated,” a senior WCD official told Hindustan Times.
The ICC (internal complaint committee) will take action as prescribed under the Act and update the status of the complaint.
Officials said that She-Box was set up in light of various complaints by from women employees ruing the delay in investigation of such cases. The portal is also an effort to provide “speedier remedy” to victims. The WCD minister also instructed officials to make the portal as “interactive” as possible.
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The portal should offer a list of follow-up details so that the employee gets to know the exact status of the complaint, she told officials.
The Union government has 30.87 lakh employees. According to the Census of Central Government Employees 2011, women constitute 10.93 per cent of the total force.
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