NEW DELHI: With the district-level anti-sexual harassment committees for informal sector workers in the national capital hardly receiving any complaints in the last two years, Delhi government has stepped up measures to ensure strict compliance to the law that mandates setting up of local committees to look into the complaints.
The deadline for formal institutions and organisations to form internal committees is November 31 and non-compliance after the deadline will be dealt with strict action.
“This is very serious matter that hardly any woman has approached the local committee in the last two years. This shows the lack of awareness about the law that is in place to protect women from such dangers in the informal sectors. A mass awareness programme is being planned by the Delhi government in this regard,” said Sudha Tiwari, chairperson of Shakti Shalini, an NGO based out of Delhi.
The matter was brought up in a recent review meeting between Women and Child Development department and other non-government organisations regarding the implementation of Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition, Redressal) Act 2013. The Act makes it mandatory for government, private and non-government formal establishments with more than 10 employees to form internal committees.
For women employed in informal sectors as domestic workers, labourers etc., a local committee at district level with a nodal officer-in-charge will address the complaint.
Three years after the Act was framed, the WCD department passed an order by which all district magistrates were assigned the role of a district officer in the local committee. So far, eight out of 11 districts in Delhi have formed the committees.