NEW DELHI: The National Medical Commission on Friday directed all healthcare institutes and medical colleges to implement the provisions of the Prevention of Sexual Harassment (PoSH) Act, in their campuses in a time-bound manner.
The medical regulatory body has asked all healthcare institutes under its aegis to “constitute and compose the Internal Complaint Committees (ICCs), Local Committees (LCs), Internal Committees (ICs), under them at the appropriate level.”
It directed the institutes that contact details of designated persons to approach for lodging a complaint, the procedure prescribed for submitting an online complaint, as also the relevant rules, regulations and internal policies should be displayed on their website. “The details should be made readily available and updated from time to time,” the order read.
The move is in line with the directions of the SC’s judgment where it directed Union government and state governments “to verify whether all the ministries, departments, government organizations, authorities, PSUs, institutions concerned, etc. have constituted ICCS/LCS/ICs, as the case may be and that the composition of the said Committees is strictly in terms of the provisions of the POSH Act.”
Dr Sharad Kumar Agarwal, President of, the Indian Medical Association said the move is in a progressive direction. “Women workforce constitutes a large part of our healthcare workforce so some mechanism was needed to protect their dignity at workplaces. The implementation of the provisions mandated in the act would ensure justice and also elicit confidence among the female employees,” he said.
Dr Subhash Giri, Director, of Lady Hardinge Medical College said the provisions were already there in large government healthcare set-ups. “Many small institutes were not following the guidelines. This will ensure blanket applicability of the act,” said Dr Giri. The Federation of Resident Doctors’ Association said that the authorities should ensure that the provisions of the act are not exploited.