First meeting of GoM on sexual harassment complaints on Monday WCD to push for strengthening NCW

A group of ministers formed to strengthen legal and institutional frameworks to prevent sexual harassment at workplace will hold their first meeting Monday where WCD Minister Maneka Gandhi will push for strengthening the National Commission for Women (NCW), officials said.

The group of ministers, headed by Home Minister Rajnath Singh, was constituted by the government to strengthen the legal and institutional frameworks to deal with and prevent sexual harassment at workplace.

Its members are Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Gandhi, the women and child development minister.

A senior WCD official said Gandhi would push for strengthening the National Commission for Women and giving it more teeth to grapple with the complaints of harassment made by women.

The official said the WCD minister is likely to suggest giving more powers to the commission, equivalent to that of a civil court, and allowing it to impose fines and the right to summon and search and seize documents when carrying out an investigation.

The GoM will examine the existing legal and institutional frameworks for dealing with such matters.

It will recommend action required for effective implementation of the existing provisions, as well as for strengthening these frameworks for addressing issues related to sexual harassment at workplace, the official said.

The GoM has been set up in the wake of #MeToo where several women have publicly named people who had harassed them at their workplace.

India's "#MeToo" movement, which started with actor Tanushree Dutta accusing actor Nana Patekar of harassing her during the shooting of a Bollywood film in 2008, escalated sharply with more and more women coming forward with their complaints against various personalities.

Former minister of state for external affairs M J Akbar, filmmakers Subhash Ghai, Sajid Khan, Rajat Kapoor and actor Alok Nath are among those who have been accused of sexual misconduct.