NEW DELHI: It will now be possible for complainants of sexual harassment at workplaces who reach out to the Union Women and Child Development Ministry to know the status of their complaints as the government has decided to link the other ministries, state governments and district authorities on the online portal. The ministry said that for prompt disposal of complaints on SHe-Box (sexual harassment at workplace electronic box), each case will be linked directly to the central or state authority concerned to take action in the matter.
Till November 20, 2018, as many as 321 complaints have been registered with the SHe-Box, of which, 120 are related to central ministries or departments, 58 are from state governments and 143 are from private companies.
The development comes even as an RTI response has revealed that in about 70 per cent complaints received by the Ministry there has been no action.
Meanwhile, the government has also empanelled 223 institutions and organisations to conduct awareness exercises on the provisions of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 in the wake of a large number of women coming out to name their harassers under the hashtag MeToo.
“These empanelled institutes have to submit quarterly reports. They have so far organised over 700 capacity-building exercises which were attended by nearly 50,000 participants,” said WCD Minister Maneka Gandhi.