Any complaints of sexual harassment within the Delhi government will now have to be logged online, instead of on paper, within a week to ensure transparency, as per directions of Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar.
The directions came after the WCD Minister Atishi, reacting to complaints of sexual harassment against a suspended deputy director, WCD Premoday Khakha who allegedly raped a minor in his care at his house, asked that a system be created to strengthen Internal Complaints Committees (ICCs) and identify officers having repeated cases of sexual harassment complaints against them.
Following this, the CS had ordered that members of ICCs be trained on how to deal with cases of sexual harassment. The Special Director, Union Territories Civil Services (UTCS), has been asked to arrange training sessions for members of ICCs within a month.
Officials said training has not started yet but UTCS has been doing training on sexual harassment for a long time.
“UTCS conducts training on POSH (Prevention of Sexual Harassment at Workplace) Act at least once a month which can be attended by any government employee. Specific training for ICC members was conducted on October 6; it was attended by 260 participants,” said an official.
K Mahesh, Special Director, Training, UTCS, said, “Training on sexual harassment at the workplace is a top priority as it involves the safety and security of women employees. We send our annual training calendar every year to all departments, followed by circulars to depute participants and members of the Internal Sexual Harassment Committee.”
In the last six months, UTCS organised 14 programmes where 483 people were trained. The next training is in November. A three-member panel, with three senior women bureaucrats, has also been constituted to examine the functioning of all ICCs and report shortcomings.
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