Serious legal action against organisations without a sexual harassment committee, says Maneka Gandhi

"Any organisation that does not have a sexual harassment committee will face serious legal action," said Union Minister of Women and Child Development on Thursday during a press conference held by the ministry on completing 100 days in office.

Replying to a question on the recent spate of sexual harassment cases against sitting and former judges, the minister said that the ministry will take stringent action against any organisation found flouting the rules laid down by the Vishakha Guidelines, which say that every organisation must have a committee headed by a woman to handle cases of harassment at the workplace.

During the press conference, Gandhi spoke about a host of schemes and projects for women and children on issues like nutrition, education, women empowerment, adoption, child abuse, etc. The ministry said that it plans to bring down the current malnutrition rate from over 40% to 30% within a year.

In the areas of child protection, the ministry will bring up the number of the childcare helplines Childline from the current 282 to 340 in the coming year. Adoption rules will be eased, and the idea of foster care will be introduced where families will be paid to take care of children for a period of time without permanently taking them up for adoption.

To empower women, the ministry said that the rashtra mahila banks will help skilled women with money, and products manufactured by women self-help groups will be branded under the 'women of India' tag.

Gandhi also hoped that the Nirbhaya crisis centres, which will provide immediate medical, legal, psychological, financial and residential help to victims of abuse will help bring down the rate of abuse. Answering a question on how the ministry plans to take up the unreported cases of marital rape, the minster said that harassment takes places mostly because of the idea that the woman has nowhere to go. "The Nirbhaya centres will tackle 50% of these cases," said Gandhi.

Political comments
Fielding a question on love jihad, an heated issue with many members of her party, Gandhi said that the ministry did not have any complaints. "We have had no official complaint in the ministry, so as a minister, I cannot say that we have. However, as a Member of Parliament, in my constituency people have come and complained to me and there have been about seven to eight such cases which we have referred to the police. So I am going to separate the two," she said. Speaking on her party's defeat on the recent by-polls in Uttar Pradesh, she said, "That's so sad, I work so hard. I can't answer a political question here because I am confined to the ministry. But as far as I know, I work really hard and that's not fair." Despite refusing to answer on the absence of star campaigners like her son, Gandhi said that he must be brought back.


Some more announcements
With the help of anganwadis, the ICDS scheme will target lactating women and children, especially those below 2-3 years.

TrackChild, another initiative, will help find missing children.

Gandhi also announced that the ministry will award a woman every year on International Women's Day for examplary contribution to women's issues.

The ministry has also overhauled CARA, and a new chairperson will be appointed soon.