District Collector C.A. Latha said here on Thursday that many internal complaint committees had become dysfunctional as no one had registered complaints about sexual harassment at the workplace.
She was speaking after inaugurating a women’s empowerment workshop organised by the Kerala State Women’s Development Corporation (KSWDC) along with the Centre for Management Development.
The Collector noted that women were hesitant to file such complaints mainly out of fear of exposure and the formalities of the case. “Many institutions have formed Internal Complaints Committees (ICC) as per the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, but in spite of awareness programmes and meetings, women had not registered complaints. How long can a complaints committee survive without response? Hence many died out,” she said.
She said there were several instances of harassment of other nature, not sexual harassment, at workplaces in Kerala.
City Police Commissioner A.V. George, in his presidential address, urged women not to misuse the laws that are for their protection. He said in every case of sexual harassment, there was a woman on the list of culprits.
Chairperson of the KSWDC P.Kulsu, vice-president of the Kerala NGO Union Sujatha Koodathingal, Directors of the KSWDC P.Khadeeja, Lally Jophin and Suja Balussery were present on the occasion. The workshop mainly dealt with workplace harassment of women, the Visakha guidelines, Sexual Harassment Act and other laws for the protection of women. It comprised three technical sessions. M.G. Mallika, Assitant Professor at Zamorin’s Guruvayurappan College, spoke on the context and consequences of the issue of sexual harassment at workplaces while Moly Kuruvila of the Centre for Women’s Studies, CU, spoke on the structure, duties and functions of internal complaints committees. Sujatha Varma, lawyer, spoke on the legal aspects in the issue of sexual harassment at workplaces.
