Times of
India: New Delhi: Thursday, October 25, 2018.
Only
29 per cent of Indian districts have confirmed that local committees exist to
address sexual harassment at workplace, as per an RTI study by Martha Farrell
Foundation.
The
study points to lax implementation of the 2013 Sexual Harassment of Women at
Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition, Redressal) Act across India.
As
per the Act, every District Officer shall constitute in the district concerned
a committee to be known as the local committee to receive complaints of sexual
harassment from women.
Out
of 655 districts in India, 56 per cent chose not to reply to an RTI query on
status of local committees, while only 29 per cent districts confirmed that a
local committee had been constituted.
"It
is apparent that the Central Government needs to come up with a better
monitoring system for the Act. The Act provides protection against sexual
harassment of women at workplace and for the prevention and redressal of
complaints," said Nandita Bhatt, Director, Martha Farrell Foundation, an
institution working towards ending sexual harassment of women at workplace.
Local
committees are the only recourse for women workers working in the informal
sector.
"With
94 per cent of Indian female labour force in the informal sector, the
meaningful implementation of this Act is a crucial step towards their dignity
and safety at the workplace," Bhatt added.
Under
RTI, districts are mandated to share the requested information, and failure to
do so within the specified period is deemed to be refusal to give the
information that has been requested.
The
study was conducted between 2016 and 2018.
In
2016-17, the Foundation first filed for information on local committees with
the district administrations across the country.
Given
the non-receipt of replies from many district administrations, subsequent RTI
queries were filed in state departments of Women and Child Development (barring
the state of Jammu and Kashmir, union territories of Lakshadweep, Andaman and
Nicobar, and Daman and Diu).
First
appeals were also filed in 30 per cent of the districts. DRR ABM ABM.
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