Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013

India has signed and ratified the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). However, India didn’t have a specific law to address the issue of sexual harassment of women at the place of work.

• In 2013 SHWW Act was implemented with the aim to redress women grievances related to sexual harassment at the workplace.

Important Features of the Act

• The Act defines sexual harassment as unwelcome sexually determined behavior such as physical contact, request for sexual favors, sexually coloured remarks, screening of pornography or any other conduct of sexual nature at the work place and creates a mechanism for redressal of complaints. It also provides safeguards against false or malicious charges.
• It covers every woman at the work place (whether employed or not) except a domestic worker working at home. It defines employer as the person responsible for the management, supervision and control of the work place.
• Every employer is assigned a responsibility of constituting an Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) (if the total strength of organization is more than 10) to ensure enquiry and redressal of women grievances/complaints.
• A ‘Local Complaints Committee’ is required to be constituted in every district for the purpose of addressing complaints in situations where the complainant does not have recourse to an Internal Complaints Committee or where the complaint is against the employer himself.
• At least 50 per cent of the nominated members in any Internal or Local Committee must be women.
• If the allegations are proved or found false, the committee may proceed as per sections of the act. Appeals against committees recommendations to lie with the courts.

Issues with the Act

• There’s no participation of Civil Society Organization in the ICC. The members are from organization only which raises concerns of biasness.
• Ambiguous guidelines for the constitution of Local Complaints Committee. The jurisdiction and functions of these committees have not been delineated.
• Exclusion of Domestic workers from the list.

The government must include domestic workers into the list or formulate a different law for them as they are vulnerable. Apart from it, proper adherence and implementation of the act is the key for its success.