Delhi women's panel seeks strict enforcement of laws against sex abuse at work
India Today
The Local Complaints Committee (LCC) - charged with receiving complaints of sexual harassment from offices and establishments without an internal committee to address such problems - has not been formed in every district, the report said.
The Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chief Ms Swati Maliwal today submitted a report to the Delhi administration, pointing out the lapses in the execution of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) law in the city.
The Local Complaints Committee (LCC) - charged with receiving complaints of sexual harassment from offices and establishments without an internal committee to address such problems - has not been formed in every district, the report said.
In order to ascertain the status of the LCC in Delhi, notices were issued by the commission to all the district magistrates, seeking specific information regarding the LCC in their district, it added.
“It was observed that only 40 complaints were received by all the LCC from 2019-2021. For instance, Delhi’s southwest district dealt with only three cases in the three years, while the west district did not deal with any cases at all. Even the small number of complaints received was not being dealt with in a time-bound manner,” the report said.
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The report observed serious problems in the constitution of the committees and that the committees did not have proper and dedicated office space, budget, and staff. “This cripples their functioning,” the report read.
The DCW also highlighted the lack of publicity about these committees and stated that the low number of complaints registered could also be due to lack of awareness of the LCC and other provisions of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013.
