Central Govt employees get ‘She-box’ to file sexual harassment complaints

This online complaint filing system will encourage more women to speak up about harassment at the workplace and get quick redressal.

Now central government employees can file a sexual harassment complaint online. The Ministry of Women and Child Development has launched an online platform called ‘She-box’ — the sexual harassment electronic box. Employees will use this platform to file complaints about sexual harassment at the workplace.

This platform aims to speed up the hearing and redressal process of sexual harassment cases. Earlier, employees used to report these cases to the HR head or their managers. Not only was the process lengthy, but it also made them uncomfortable explaining the issues. With the She-box, they can file a complaint instantly and get quick redressal. Now more women employees will be able to file complaints for the harassment they go through, while at work.

At the launch of this platform, Union Minister Maneka Gandhi said that “We are also going to soon conduct a national survey to assess the nature and magnitude of sexual harassment at the workplace”.

This platform, currently available to central government employees, is expected to be available for private company employees also in the near future.

The online complaint filing system will work along with the traditional method.

The government felt the need to introduce this online platform to ensure effective implementation of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013. According to the Act, all organisations with more than 10 employees must constitute an Internal Complaint Committee (ICC) to address the complaints and allegations of sexual harassment.

The management of this online complaint filing system will be handled and monitored by the Ministry of Women and Child Development.

The employees can file a complaint by simply providing details, such as name, designation, telephone number, ministry/organisation the complaint belongs to, designation of the accused, working relationship with the accused, whether the complaint has been lodged with the ICC and brief description of the incident. After successful submission of these details, an e-mail is sent to the employee’s e-mail id for verification. 

The complaints filed this way will be sent by the ministry to the ICC of the concerned ministry/department/PSU/autonomous body, which will have the jurisdiction to look into the complaints.