TURA, July 14: West Garo Hills Deputy Commissioner Ram Singh on Wednesday recommended that all departments including private sectors in the district to set up internal complaint committees (ICC) to prevent gross violation of women’s right to equality and dignity at the workplace.
Addressing a meeting on Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 with all heads of departments in the district at the DRDA conference hall in Tura, Ram Singh highlighted the provisions of the guidelines of the Handbook and informed that these guidelines are meant for all workplaces, institutions or organisation which provides a basic understanding of sexual harassment at places of work. He then informed that the Act had been enacted to ensure safe working spaces for women and to build an enabling work environment that respects women’s right to equality of status and opportunity.
Quoting the provisions of the Act, Singh said that redressal mechanism in the form of Internal Complaint Committee (ICC) or Local Complaint Committee or Complaints Committee should also be established which would look into the matters of sexual harassment of women at workplace and that the Committee is mandated to be headed by a woman employee with not less than half of its members being women.
Speaking on the sidelines of the meeting, Ram Singh also pointed to the recent spike in Covid-19 positive cases in the district and directed all Heads of Departments to ensure that their staff are vaccinated and also to encourage and motivate other beneficiaries, neighbours, etc to vaccinate so as to safeguard and protect against the disease.