Centre disposes 85 of 265 SHe-Box sexual harassment complaints; portal now offers multilingual support
NEW DELHI: Of the 265 complaints received on the SHe-Box portal, which serves as a unified platform for women across the country to file complaints of sexual harassment, 85 complaints have been disposed of, the centre informed the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. In a written reply, Minister of State for Women and Child Development, Savitri Thakur, said, the ministry had launched the SHe-Box portal, which encompassed various provisions of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition, and Redressal) Act, 2013 (SH Act), to provide a publicly available centralised repository of information related to Internal Committees (ICs) and Local Committees (LCs) formed across the country, whether in government or private sector. The portal receives complaints related to sexual harassment from women whether they work in the organised or unorganised and whether in public or private sector. The SH Act mandates the appropriate government to monitor the implementation of the Act and maintain data on the number of cases filed and disposed of. SHe-Box is not a mechanism for statutory or regulatory oversight, but to provide a centralised online system to facilitate dissemination of information about the ICs and LCs constituted at various workplaces so that any aggrieved woman may file a complaint in a secure and hassle free manner and track its progress. Any complaint filed on the SHe-Box portal reaches directly to the IC of the workplace concerned or LC of the district, as the case may be. Except the Chairperson of theIC, no other person is able to see the details or nature of the complaint. The portal also provides for designating a nodal officer for every workplace for its effective functioning and management. They play a pivotal role as bridge for the employer, the Internal Committee/ Local Committee and the complainant in their respective workplaces by ensuring timely action on the complaints and regular updation of the data and related information on the portal, which are essential from the point of view of ensuring statutory compliance. To ensure timely disposal of complaints, which is essential for compliance with the provisions of the SH Act, the WCD ministry has implemented several measures,the minister said. These measures include displaying freeze messages on the dashboard and sending regular reminders to nodal officers and IC Presiding officers / LC chairpersons via emails and mobile phone messages. To streamline the process of filing and tracking sexual harassment complaints on portal and to enhance the portal's user-friendliness and provide an improved experience for users across thecountry, a multilingual support feature has been introduced. Also, complainants can track the status of their complaints in real-time, receiving updates on the progress and any actions taken. This transparency helps to ensure accountability and prompt resolution, she added.
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