The Government has enacted “The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013” (SH Act) which aims to provide protection to women against sexual harassment at workplace and for the prevention and redressal of complaints related to it. The Act covers all women, irrespective of their age, employment status or nature of work whether working in public or private, organised or unorganised sector.

The Act casts an obligation upon employers of all workplaces, public or private, to provide a safe and secure working environment free from sexual harassment, whereby every employer is mandated to constitute an Internal Committee (IC) where the number of employees/ workers is more than 10. Similarly, the Appropriate Government is authorized to constitute Local Committee (LC) in every district to receive complaints from organizations having less than ten workers or if the complaint is against the employer himself.

This information was given by the Union Minister of Women and Child Development, Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani, in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today.

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BY/TFK