22 NOV 2018

The Ministry of Women and Child Development has linked SHe-Box, the online portal to report complaints of Sexual Harassment at Workplace, to all the Central Ministries, Departments and 653 districts across 33 States/Union Territories. For prompt disposal of complaints on SHe-Box, each case goes directly to the central/ 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. Till November 20, 2018, as many as 321 complaints have been registered with ‘SHe-Box’ out of which 120 are related to central ministries/departments, 58 are from state governments and 143 are from private companies.

Elaborating on the portal, Smt. Gandhi said, “SHe-Box portal is an effort to provide speedy remedy to women facing sexual harassment at workplace. 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. Through this portal, WCD as well as the complainant, can monitor the progress of the inquiry. 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.”

SHe-Box, which was launched by WCD Minister Smt Maneka Sanjay Gandhi last year, offers the facility of making online complaints of sexual harassment at workplace to all women employees in the country including government and private employees. Those who have already filed a written complaint with the concerned 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.

The portal can be accessed at the following link: http://shebox.nic.in/

The Ministry has also published a Handbook and Training Module on the SH Act to provide information about the provisions of the Act in easy to use practical manner. The private organizations are encouraged to customize the Training Module as per their extant service rules and disciplinary procedures prescribed therein.

PIB

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Government to refund employers for seven weeks of maternity leave given to employees: WCD

The government will give employers the salaries for seven of the 26 weeks of maternity leave for women earning more than Rs 15,000 a month, the Women and Child Development ministry announced on Thursday.

The announcement, which covers the government as well as the private sector, comes in the wake of complaints that many companies were reluctant hire pregnant women after maternity leave was extended from 12 to 26 weeks and some were even firing women employees.

WCD Secretary Rakesh Srivastava said it has been decided to utilise the funds lying in the labour welfare cess to pay the employers.

“The utilisation of the labour welfare cess lying with the state governments has been very less. After talks with the Labour Ministry it has been decided that the seven of the 26 weeks of maternity leave for all women employees in the private and government sector getting more than Rs 15,000 a month would be paid from that fund,” Srivastava told reporters here.

The labour welfare cess has been given to state governments to ensure the welfare of workers.

Maternity leave was extended from 12 weeks to 26 weeks last year.

According to Srivastava, there were complaints from women that they were getting fired from their jobs due to the increased duration of maternity leave.

“The government has now decided that out of the 14 extra weeks, half of the amount of salary paid to the pregnant woman would be refunded to the employer from the funds of the labour welfare cess,” he said.

Till March 2017, there was Rs 32,632 crore in the fund. Of this, just Rs 7,500 crore has been utilised, he said.

“We would be refunding the salary of seven weeks to the employer so women do not face problems upon returning to work,” he said.

“The labour minister has agreed to the proposal and we are now carrying it forward. There will soon be a notification from the Labour Ministry with further details,” he added.

Source: wcd.nic.in

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19 APR 2018

All Police officers should be re-trained on various aspects of sexual offences

Smt Maneka Sanjay Gandhi writes to Chief Ministers of all States/UTs highlighting necessary steps for dealing with sexual offences

In a letter addressed to Chief Ministers of all the States/UTs, Smt. Maneka Sanjay Gandhi, Union Minister for Women and Child Development has outlined various steps to be taken by the States/UTs in preventing and curbing the crimes against women and children. Some of the steps mentioned in the letter are:

All police officers should be re-trained on various aspects of sexual offences particularly those related to collection and preservation of evidence.

Instructions may be issued to all police officers that utmost priority is to be given to complete the investigation of cases of sexual offences against children strictly as per the timelines of Law.

State Governments must take strict action against those police officers who are found to be obstructing the investigation or colluding with the perpetrators of such cases.

A quick and timely professional investigation is the only method in which a potential offender can be deterred but this can be done only by the states as the police department is the state subject. Forming a special cell only for sexual offences or specially for sexual offences on children, would be a significant step in this regard.

The Women and Child Development Minister offered help to State Governments in establishing Forensic Laboratories in states which can be used for forensic analysis of evidence in the investigation of sexual offences.

The WCD Minister has requested the states to generate awareness among the children in using the e-box set up under POCSO with child-help line number 1098. The Minister also highlighted that till date 175 One stop centres for women affected by violence have been set up by the Ministry of Women and Child Development. One Stop Centres are to help those women who have no access to either police or medical facilities or are not able to visit a police station in times of distress.

The letter also stressed that Section 21 of the POCSO Act may be invoked in all cases wherever failure to report or record is noted. Section 21 states that any officer who fails to report or record the commission of an offence under section 19/20 of the Act is liable for punishment.

The WCD Minister called for suggestions from the state Governments on dealing with the crimes against women and children.

Source : PIB

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