The Act provides protection to women from sexual harassment at all workplaces, both in public and private sector, whether organised or unorganized. Employers are obliged to follow the safeguarding measures provided in the Act, such as: Promoting a gender sensitive workplace; providing a safe working environment; declaring the names and contact details of all members of the Internal Committee; organizing workshops and awareness programmes, etc.
An important feature of this Act is that it envisages the setting up of a grievance redressal forum under Section 4 and Section 6.
- Section 4 requires an employer to set up an ‘internal committee’ at each office or branch, of an organization employing 10 or more employees, to hear and redress grievances relating to sexual harassment.
- Section 6 requires the government at the district level to set up a ‘local committee’ to investigate and redress complaints of sexual harassment from the unorganized sector or from establishments where the IC (where they may be less than 10 employees).
- Section 9 clarifies that an aggrieved woman who intends to file a complaint is required to submit six copies of the written complaint, along with supporting documents and names and addresses of the witnesses to the IC or LC, within 3 months from the date of the incident and in case of a series of incidents, within a period of 3 months from the date of the last incident.
The full text of the law and its provisions can be accessed here: https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/cedaw.aspx