How Can We Effectively Establish an Anti-Sexual Harassment Committee in Our IT Firm?

My name is Ashwini, and I work with the HR Department of an IT firm in Bangalore. We are looking at setting up an Anti-Sexual Harassment Committee for our organization along with rolling out a policy on the same.

Could you please provide suggestions on how to plan for this and how best we can set up the committee and create awareness org-wide? Thank you very much.

Regards,
Ashwini Kalkur

The guidelines recommend setting up a Harassment Committee to be headed by a woman, with half of its members comprising women, to deal with sexual harassment cases. It is also recommended that the committee involve a third party, either an NGO or another body familiar with the issue of sexual harassment, to prevent the possibility of any undue pressure or influence from senior levels.

Regards,

You can look at the case of Vishaka v. State of Rajasthan (AIR 1997 SC 3011). In this case, the Supreme Court has laid down guidelines to prevent sexual harassment of women in the workplace.

This is definitely a good move, but good policy and procedure guidelines should be framed. This should be an independent inquiry, as rightly said by Hema. There are always two sides to the coin. One should ensure that there are no false complaints given, and the inquiry should be unanimous. It should not only act as a harassment cell but also as a whistleblower to avoid such incidents.

The link provided is correct and does not contain any spelling or grammatical errors. However, I can format the link properly and provide it in a well-structured paragraph:

Link: [The Protection of Women Against Sexual Harassment at Workplace Bill, 2010](http://www.prsindia.org/billtrack/the-protection-of-women-against-sexual-harassment-at-work-place-bill-2010-1402/)

Please let me know if you need any further assistance or information.

I agree with Hema's suggestion. We have also done the same. A policy should be formulated and circulated to all employees, including the grievance redressal process.

Regards, Pramod
Kolkata