Panel on sexual harassment made: CPI(M) tells Maneka Gandhi

Maneka Gandhi had last month written to seven national and 51 recognised regional parties asking them to constitute internal complaints committees as per law in the aftermath of the #MeToo movement.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Thursday wrote to Union women and child development (WCD) minister Maneka Gandhi about its internal complaints panel to deal with sexual harassment at workplace.

The CPI(M) is the only party to have responded to Maneka Gandhi’s letter. (PTI/File Photo)

“The Central Committee office of CPI(M) had constituted the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) soon after gazette notification of the Sexual Harassment at Work Place Act, 2013. The ICC is reconstituted after the party congress of CPI(M) in every three years. The 22nd congress of the CPI(M) concluded in April 2018,” read the CPI(M) letter to Gandhi.

The CPI(M) wrote to Gandhi in response to her letter about the constitution of ICCs as per the Sexual Harassment at Workplace Act, 2013. Gandhi had last month written to seven national and 51 recognised regional parties asking them to constitute ICCs as per law in the aftermath of #MeToo movement against sexual harassment of women in India. The CPI(M) is the only party to have responded to Gandhi’s letter.

The law mandates every organisation with women to have an ICC irrespective of its origin and structure. A senior woman employee is to head the women-dominated ICC, which has to have one external member.