The draft will not be made public since it is still at a primary stage, an official said.
The Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) has submitted a draft “Action Plan on Women’s Safety” to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to strategise the government’s policy to make the country safer for women. As part of the MHA’s “Mission on Women’s Safety”, the MWCD tabled its draft earlier this week and it was discussed at a meeting between senior executives from both the ministries.
Requesting anonymity, a senior official in the MWCD said, “We have tried to create an action plan that is result-oriented and goes beyond simple awareness and campaigning. We have recognised the core problems that make the environment in cities and towns unsafe for women and have tried to introduce ideas that can be implemented at the national level in order to change the status quo.” The official further added that the draft will not be made public since it is still at a primary stage.
The MHA’s “Mission for Women’s Safety” was constituted by Government of India in the aftermath of the Kathua rape case in May this year. Other than being in the process of drafting an action plan, the MHA has also been assigned the charge of drafting a “National Policy on Women’s Safety” and has also asked several ministries to send recommendations for the same. The MWCD’s action plan might be used as part of the “National Policy on Women’s Safety”.
The government intends to launch the “Mission on Women’s Safety” on the lines of its earlier missions like Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Poshan Abhiyan, etc. The plan is still in its nascent stage, but is expected to reach a conclusive structure in another four to five months.
A tentative outline of the “National Policy on Women’s Safety” is likely to deal with issues like sensitisation of school children on gender roles through changes in school curriculum, countering proliferation of pornographic content online, crimes against minor girls, introducing time-bound prosecution in rape cases, along with a national level media campaign on women’s safety, much like the ongoing ones related to the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan etc.
In another initiative to improve safety of women at the workplace, the MWCD released data on its “SHe-Box” facility that reveals that since its launch in July 2017 till May 2018, the “SHe-Box” received a total of 196 complaints only. Out of these, 74 complaints were received by Government of India employees, 46 by state government employees and 76 from private sector employees.
Commenting on the unimpressive number of complaints received, a senior MWCD official said: “The purpose of the SHe-Box was to provide a convenient and anonymous online portal for those women who want to report sexual harassment. However, the SHe-Box is not the only platform women have. There are internal complaints committees at companies and often these address the issues.”
The online complaint management system—“SHe-box” (Sexual Harassment Electronic Box)—hosted on the MWCD website, seeks to ensure “effective implementation” of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redresal) Act, 2013.
Once a complaint is submitted to the “SHe-Box”, it is directly sent to the internal complaints’ committee (ICC) of the ministry/ department/PSU/ autonomous body etc. concerned, having jurisdiction to inquire into the matter.