Most of govt, 90 pc pvt sector does not have sexual harassment

Most of the government and 90 percent of the private sector still have not got the internal committees to deal with sexual harassment cases at workplace, Women and Child Minister Maneka Gandhi said today, admitting that the government has not been "very successful" in this.
She stated this in Rajya Sabha while participating in discussion on functioning of her ministry.
While the (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act was passed in 2013, its implementation continues to be a difficult task, she said while describing the previous government's initiative as important.
Gandhi said her ministry was trying to make the government as well as private workplaces set up such committees and sought suggestions from the members.

While implementing it in government workplaces could still be simpler, she was trying to find a way through which the private sector would do so, the minister said.
At present, she said, her ministry takes up the matter with companies on case-to-case basis when an incident of harassment occurrs.

During the discussion, some members, including S C Mishra (BSP), asked if there was such a committee in the Parliament.
Gandhi said it was for the Lok Sabha Speaker or the Rajya Sabha Chairman to decide on it.
As members raised the matter, Deputy Chairman P J Kurien who was in the chair, said the suggestion would be examined.

Gandhi also said that she had, a couple of months back, asked the National Commission for Women to do a survey on women in mental asylums.
At times, when women are widowed and have property in their name, their family conspires to remove them.
"So (NCW) they will be, for the first time since independence, doing a survey on women who are in mental asylums to ascertain if they are really mentally disturbed and what we can be done for them," Gandhi said.