Most departments lack internal complaints panel

Despite directive by the Supreme Court to all States to constitute internal complaints committees to probe complaints of sexual harassment at workplaces, Puducherry presents a sorry state of affairs with most of the government departments having to yet form the committees.

According to a senior official, only nine government departments have formed the panels and the most glaring feature is that the District Collectorate in Puducherry does not have such a committee. An educational institution in Yanam is the lone establishment in the Union Territory to have formed the panel while other institutions are yet to form the panels. Reminders about this have not been effective.

The recent case of the former Director of Animal Husbandry P. Padmanaban being in the dock following a complaint of sexual harassment lodged by an Assistant Veterinary Surgeon to the district-level complaints committee brought out the fact that the government departments should constitute the committee as the Supreme Court laid down in the Vishaka guidelines in 1997.

Although women faced sexual harassment in departments and institutions, very few mustered courage to register complaints with the panel in the respective institutions.

The district-level complaints committee, headed by Vidyaa Ramkumar, has received four complaints, including oral complaints, from victims so far. The DLCC has received scores of complaints from an institution in Puducherry. Although the institution had an ICC, it had failed to take any action against the accused who continues to harass the victims, sources said.

Victims left in the lurch

An official on anonymity pointed out that even the internal complaints committee constituted in a few departments remained only an eyewash. Sincere efforts had not been made to associate representatives from non-governmental organisations as external member and practising advocates in the panel. The committees had failed to adhere to the guidelines, leaving the victims in the cold.

Since a few departments had their own staff as the members in the ICC, most of them did not come out and opted to remain silent. The members remained biased most of the time. Ultimately, the victims had to wait for justice.

The guidelines recommended setting up of a complaint committee, to be headed by a woman and half the number of the members should be women, to deal with sexual harassment cases. The committee should have representatives from NGOs familiar with the issue of sexual harassment, in order to prevent possibility of any undue pressure or influence from senior levels.

Reminder sent in 2015

A senior official in the department of women and child development said the department had sent letters to all government departments on July 31, 2015 to ensure that there was a committee in place to hear the complaints of women employees. However, many departments did not constitute the committees despite repeated reminders. A few departments had constituted the panels this year but it was not as per the guidelines. The department conducted a meeting of heads of all departments recently and issued guidelines for forming the panels as per the guidelines of the Supreme Court, he said.

According to Dr. Aashita, Assistant Professor, Centre for Women’s Studies, Pondicherry University, “Responsibility of the employer doesn’t end just by creating an internal committee. It has to create an atmosphere where no single employee has to work under any kind of fear of being sexually abused. Moreover, knowledge as to what constitutes sexual harassment as well as the laws relating to it had to be imparted to employees because in many cases it is observed that the victims are not aware that they are actually being sexually harassed.”

Most importantly, it has to be realised that men and third gender people are also victims of sexual harassment and therefore sexual harassment laws have to recognise such victims, Ms. Aashita said.