AP women’s commission demands internal complaints panels in all government offices

Taking a serious note of the increasing incidence of harassment of women at workplaces in the State, AP State Commission for Women has ordered Chief Secretary K.S. Jawahar Reddy to constitute internal complaints committees in all government offices across the State.

“We have asked the Chief Secretary to constitute one Internal Complaints Committee each at every government office, from State Secretariat to Village and Ward Secretariat. The government has already constituted the committee at the Secretariat. We insist that it form such committees at all the offices. For that, we asked the Chief Secretary to conduct a conference with the heads of departments,” Vasireddy Padma, Chairperson of the Women’s Commission, told The Hindu.

Ms. Padma further said that each committee should comprise a presiding officer, who shall be a woman employed at a senior level at the workplace, two other members with legal knowledge or working for the same cause and one member from non-governmental organisations. Thus, a committee should comprise four members. 

She said that the commission has ordered authorities concerned to constitute the committees as per both the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, and the guidelines issued by the Supreme Court.