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Widen Sexual Harassment at Workplace Act, NCW urged

Gender Neutral: Experts suggest inclusion of men in ambit, point at lack of mechanism

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Widening the ambit of the Sexual Harassment of Women at the Workplace Act, 2013 to make it gender-neutral was one of the key suggestions that the National Commission for Women (NCW) received in a consultation on #MeToo cases. Other top suggestions were to include sex-based discrimination, which is not sexual in nature, in the purview of the Act, as well as forming a proper mechanism to see to its implementation.

The consultations, held on Saturday, saw the participation of experts like retired judges, Justice Sujata Manohar and Justice G Rohini, Assistant Solicitor General of India from Meghalaya, Anuradha Paul, Prof GS Bajpai, Registrar of the National Law University New Delhi, advocates Flavia Agnes and Madhu Mehra, Suneeta Dhar, Prof Mrinal Satish, representatives of the Network of Women in Media among other stakeholders. In the wake of #MeToo cases, the meeting "deliberated on the various lacunae identified in the Act and made recommendations for the proper implementation of the Act in addressing the issues of sexual harassment of women at all workplaces in the country," a release stated.

The experts suggested that Section 2(n) of the Act be widened to include harassment that a woman faces because of her gender. Derogatory remarks also feature in the list of harassments. The experts also suggested that the scope of the Act be widened to include men who face harassment at workplace.

They also said that the law is not clear on prevention, and added that due to the lack of a proper mechanism for monitoring the implementation of the Act, there is no specified authority to enquire and inspect the implementation of the Act.

Several lacunae were also pointed out in the meeting such as the composition of Internal Complaints Committees, lack of proper options available to a complainant if she is not satisfied with the process of inquiry and subsequent report filed by the ICC.

In addition, the experts suggested that a monitoring or appellate authority be defined. The lack of awareness among majority of the employees working both in organised and unorganised sector was another issue raised.

NCW further revealed that the agency has received over 20 complaints of sexual harassment since the #MeToo campaign took off on its dedicated email address — ncw.metoo@gmail.com, which was launched to address these cases.

"Most of these cases are those that happened before 2013 when the POSH Act came into being," senior coordinator at the NCW Kanchan Khattar said.

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