Instruct Media To Set Up Internal Plaints Panels, NCW To I&B Ministry

After three weeks of #MeToo movement in the media industry, the National Commission for Women wrote to Information and Broadcast Ministry to instruct print publications and media houses to set up Internal Complaints Committees. Several women in the media industry have called out sexual harassment by men on social media and the next step to it is investigation in these cases.

An NCW official claimed that a lot of women from both traditional print organisations as well as digital media have filed complaints of sexual harassment at workplace with the women’s body. “We have informed the Secretary of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting that the NCW has received a number of such complaints,” the official said, The Hindu reported.

Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi has instructed the NCW to take swift action in cases of sexual harassment that are coming out with the #Metoo movement

The commission has asked the secretary to order organisations to put an effective mechanism in place for addressing complaints of sexual harassment, including constituting an internal committee in terms of the PoSH Act, 2013.

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The NCW said that the perpetrators of such crimes should be punished as per law. The commission has also asked the women who have taken to social media to reveal their harassers’ identities to send formal complaint to a specific email ID that the commission has created only for MeToo stories — ncw.metoo@gmail.com. Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi has instructed the NCW to take swift action in cases of sexual harassment that are coming out with the #Metoo movement.

Actor Tanushree Dutta recently opened the floodgates of #MeToo stories in India after she opened up to media on how she was molested by Nana Patekar a decade ago. This led women from all parts of the media industry to come up with their stories. Consequently, many men in influential positions, including a Union minister, have had to step down because of revelations about their sexual misconduct.

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