State, central govt ministries linked to online portal on sexual harassment

The Women and Child Development Ministry has linked its online portal to report complaints of alleged sexual harassment at workplace to all central and state ministries for their speedy disposal.

This is a "proactive step" taken by the WCD Ministry in the wake of the worldwide campaign #MeToo, where women have related their experience of facing sexual harassment and abuse at workplace, Union Minister Maneka Gandhi said.

Till November 20, as many as 321 complaints have been registered with 'SHe-Box', the online portal, out of which 120 are related to central ministries/departments, 58 are from state governments and 143 are from private companies.

The WCD Ministry has linked SHe-Box to all the central ministries, departments and 653 districts across 33 states and Union Territories, the ministry said in a statement.

For prompt disposal of complaints on SHe-Box, each case goes directly to the central and state authority concerned having jurisdiction to take action in the matter. Cases on She-Box can be monitored by the complainants and Ministry WCD, reducing the time taken in case disposal, the statement said.

"With the linking of the portal to central and state governments, once a complaint is submitted to the portal, it will be directly sent to the section of the employer concerned," Union Minister Maneka Gandhi said.

"Through this portal, WCD, as well as the complainant, can monitor the progress of the inquiry," Gandhi said.

SHe-Box offers the facility of making online complaints of sexual harassment at a workplace to all women employees in the country including government and private employees.

Those who have already filed a written complaint with the Internal Complaint Committee (ICC) or Local Complaint Committee (LCC) constituted under the Sexual Harassment Act are also eligible to file their complaint through this portal.

Allegations of sexual harassment against prominent people in various fields have come to light under India's online "#MeToo" movement, which started with actor Tanushree Dutta accusing fellow actor -- Nana Patekar -- of harassing her during the shooting of a Bollywood film in 2008. He has denied the allegation.

M J Akbar, former Minister of State for External Affairs, film-makers Subhash Ghai, Sajid Khan, Rajat Kapoor and actor Alok Nath are among those who have been accused of sexual misconduct. They too have denied the allegations.