Centre launches ‘SHe-box’ portal to battle sexual harassment at the workplace

The Women and Child Development ministry launched an online platform to enable women employees of the central government to file complaints related to sexual harassment at the workplace.

“We are also going to soon conduct a national survey to assess the nature and magnitude of sexual harassment at the workplace,” Union minister Maneka Gandhi said after launching the portal at her office here.

The WCD minister also instructed officials to make the ‘SHe-box’ (sexual harassment electronic box) as “interactive” as possible.

“To begin with, central government women employees can file complaints, but we are going to widen the ambit to include the private sector as well,” she said.

“We just need to make a few changes in our online interface. Once it is done, employees from private companies would also be able to lodge complaints,” Gandhi added.

The decision to host an online platform for sexual harassment cases was taken by the WCD ministry last October after the minister received complaints from women employees in various ministries