Internal Complaints Committee needs to improve its visibility in offices

HYDERABAD:  Visibility must be the key for an Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) in every company, noted experts at the Women’s Conclave held by Society for Cyberabad Security Council. Experts noted that the concept of Prevention Of Sexual Harassment committees was still nascent as companies are only firefighting complaints instead of addressing the root cause through gender sensitisation. 

“Everyone has been focussing on redressal of complaints, but is the ICC even visible? Is ICC being seen as deterrent? There should be quarterly meetings and sessions that encourage dialogue between various stakeholders,” noted Harish Sadani, co-founder of Men Against Violence and Abuse.

At present most industry leaders accept that sexism is common to the workspace and most often internalised by women who do not realise anything is wrong with certain remarks or treatments they receive which could be taken up with the ICC. 

He also noted that there needs to be a robust system to ethically hack all possibilities out of a case. “Companies must ask themselves if they have whistle blower policies, ability to curb retaliation and not being vindictive towards a complainant who fails to prove their case,” added Harish.Meanwhile police officials note that in case a complaint or incident has been grievous, women must not shy away from approaching the police to allow a parallel investigation from law enforcement.