THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: An officer at the level of additional secretary had recently sent a lewd WhatsApp image to a junior female officer. The subordinate did not find this welcome and she lodged a complaint with the Internal Complaint Cell (ICC) of the department. Though the cell found the senior guilty of harassment and recommended action, no disciplinary proceedings were initiated against the errant official.
The implementation of Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act 2013 in the state is at best shoddy. “ICCs have been set up in the organised sector, especially in government departments, but these are just namesake bodies,” said advocate J. Sandhya of Human Rights Law Network. “Fear has kept women employees from registering harassment complaints with the ICC,” she added.
Worse, according to Eliyamma Vijayan of Sakhi, employees are not made aware of the offences that constitute workplace harassment. “They are not sure what action will make up for an offence, whether something said deceptively offhand will constitute one or not, and this makes even the fearless ones hesitant to lodge a complaint,” she said.
In fact, the Act says that information related to the nature of harassment, along with the name of the nodal officer, should be displayed prominently in front of office buildings. Except for certain central government offices, none of the state government departments have put up such information prominently on common notice boards.
What’s more, the ICC has only recommendatory power. Even when the cell recommends disciplinary action, like in the case of a senior official who passed on an ‘unwelcome’ image, it is just ignored.
