Around 70% sexual abuse complaints in She-Box remain pending

Hyderabad: Two years after the Ministry of Women and Child Development launched the online sexual harassment complaint system ‘She-Box’, complaints remain unresolved in most of the states in the country.

In the case of Telangana, although 21 complaints have been registered, as of today, not even single one has either been attended to or resolved. It is ditto with Andhra Pradesh, where none of the 18 complaints has been resolved.

This was the data revealed in Lok Sabha. It showed that 539 complaints have been registered through the national She-Box portal. Of them, as many as 375 complaints remain unaddressed, which translates to 69.5 per cent. Maharashtra recorded the highest number of complaints (85).

Among the southern states, Tamil Nadu registered the highest number of complaints at 49 while only 12 were resolved. However, Karnataka showed a high redressal rate with 32 of the 37 complaints disposed.

The She-Box (Sexual Harassment e-Box), which was launched in 2017, is aimed at helping women working in both public and private organizations to lodge online complaints regarding sexual harassment at workplace.

Working women with grievances may visit to http://www.shebox.nic.in/home/login and register their complaints, which will be directly sent to the ICC (Internal Complaints Committee) of the concerned employer.

Vijayaindira, IAS, former Director of Women Development and Child Welfare department, Telangana said, “While we have pushed for formation of Internal Complaint Committees (ICC) in all the organisations, which have more than ten employees, still a lot of ICCs are yet to be registered. As of now more than 4000 ICCs have been registered under Telangana She-Box. After the launch of the mobile app, working women can submit their grievances via the app as well.”