NEW DELHI: In the past three years, merely 40 complaints of sexual harassment from establishments were received by the Local Complaint Committees (LCCs) in Delhi, according to a report by Delhi Commission for Women (DCW).
Swati Maliwal, the chairperson of DCW submitted a report to the Delhi government on Monday pointing out the dismal implementation of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) law in the national capital.
The commission also issued notices to all district magistrates in Delhi seeking information about the status of the LCCs in their district. The LCCs in every district are mandated to receive complaints of sexual harassment from establishments where the “Internal Complaints Committee” has not been constituted due to having fewer than 10 workers or complaints against the employer himself.
According to the commission’s report, the South-West district dealt with only three cases in the past three years and the West district did not deal with any cases at all. The report also mentioned that even the smaller number of complaints received was not dealt with in a time-bound manner.
The law mandates that the enquiry of a particular should need to be finished within 90 days, despite this, the complaint received in 2020 has not been resolved to date in the south district, cited the report.
The report also observed the grave issues in the formation of the committees. According to the law, the chairperson of these committees is to be nominated amongst the eminent women in the field of social work but many districts are not following this.
“The LLCs must function in an independent manner. To ensure the same, they should be properly constituted and allocated dedicated staff, budgets, and office space. Further, the government must ensure adequate publicity of the provisions of the sexual harassment at workplace law and the local complaints committees,” said Maliwal.