REACTING TO the surge of sexual harassment complaints by women on social media, the Union government has constituted a Group of Ministers (GoM) to improve the legal and institutional frameworks for redressing workplace sexual harassment. The GoM will chaired by Home Minister Rajnath Singh. According to a statement released by the government on Wednesday, the GoM will “examine the existing legal and institutional frameworks for dealing with matters of sexual harassment of women at the workplace”. It will also have to come up with recommendations for ensuring “effective implementation of the existing provisions, as well as for strengthening” the existing frameworks. READ | NCW to hold stakeholder consultations to review law The other members in the GoM include Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Women & Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi and Road Transport & Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari. The GoM will have a three-month time frame to study the existing provisions for the safety of women and come up with additional measures to strengthen such provisions and make them more effective. In her statement, Maneka said on Wednesday that the GoM is in tune with her ministry’s “mission for a safe and conducive work environment for women”. A key legislation for dealing with sexual harassment cases is the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act. Also, the WCD ministry currently has an Electronic Complaints Box (She-Box) for women to send their complaints regarding sexual harassment at workplace. The complaints received are then forwarded to the authority concerned. The ministry said that they will now also have a mechanism in place to monitor the action taken on the complaints. The government’s statement added that the GOM “has been constituted in view of the felt need for broader consultation on this issue” and that the government “is committed to ensure the safety and dignity of women in the workforce”.
