THE WEEK: National: Friday, August 24, 2018.
Queries filed
under the Right to Information (RTI) Act have revealed that some Telangana
state government departments are yet to get their act right when it comes to
women’s security at the workplace.
RTI
applications were filed with state government departments regarding the status
of internal complaints committees (ICC), which is mandatory as per the The
Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal)
Act, 2013.
The
applications were filed by the team of yourti.in, run by a Hyderabad-based NGO,
Yugantar. The replies were uploaded on the site.
The most
surprising reply came from the Information Technology, Electronics and Communication
department, considering the high number of awareness programmes organised at
various IT companies in Hyderabad.
In the
written reply dated August 1, the department’s public information officer
(PIO), who is the authority concerned, to answer RTI applications, informed
that it is yet to form a committee.
“I am to
inform that the constitution of a committee for building awareness and
prevention of sexual harassment at the workplace in this department is under
process,” reads a part of the response.
The replies
of the state Irrigation Department and Telangana Urban Finance and
Infrastructure Development Limited (TUFIDL) were unusual. These two departments
replied 'nil' to the RTI query on the existence of committees. “TUFIDL is a
corporation and all employees working in this office are on deputation basis
and there is no such information available as desired. Therefore, it may be
treated as nil,” was the reply of the department.
The Boilers
Department under the state labour ministry gave a bizarre reply that exposed
ignorance pertaining to the Sexual Harassment Act. The response did not have
any information related to the committee but specified that the department had
not received any complaints.
“It is
informed that no complaints in respect of sexual harassment cases of women at
workplace were registered in this department,” was the Boilers Department's
reply.
“The law
clearly states that every workplace that has more than 10 women working in any
status should have prevention of sexual harassment committees set up,” said
Tejaswini Madabhushi of Yugantar.
“The law also
says that the information about the committee should be publicly displayed and
gender sensitivity sessions need to be conducted in every workplace, which is
also not being followed in most departments. It took Telangana government four
years to direct departments to form committees and even then, the communication
doesn't seem effective enough as some departments are giving us clueless
responses,” she added.