Internal Complaints Committee- Prevention Of Sexual Harassment

Objectives

To develop and implement guidelines and norms for a policy against sexual harassment.
To conduct awareness activities on gender sensitization and acts for sexual harassment elimination.
To promote awareness about sexual harassment through educational activities.
To deal with cases of discrimination and sexual harassment against women and aiming at ensuring support to the victimized and eliminates sexual harassment.
To recommend appropriate punitive action against the guilty party.
To provide information regarding counseling and supportive programmes available in college.
To provide a neutral, confidential and supportive environment for members of the campus who may have been sexually harassed.

Standard Operating Procedure

The committee deals with issues related to sexual harassment and gender discrimination. It is applicable to all the staff and students. Complaints will be accepted via mail or written letters and will be addressed to the committee members. The following is considered to be sexual harassment according to Supreme Court guidelines.

Sexual harassment can be defined as “unwelcome sexually determined behavior such as:

Physical contacts or advances
Demand or request for sexual favours
Sexually coloured remarks
Showing pornography and
Other unwelcome physical, verbal, or nonverbal conduct of a sexual nature.

As per Sec 6 (2) of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition, Redressal) Act, 2013, an Internal Complaints Committee was duly formed in the college to look into, and resolve matters relating to any kind of sexual harassment against students or female employees in the institution.

Punitive Action: An employee guilty of sexual harassment shall be liable for punitive actions as per college rules/ as per management decisions.

Frequency of meetings: Meetings will be conducted as per need or once in 3 months. All records of complaints, including content of meetings, result of investigations and other relevant material will be kept confidential by the committee except where disclosure is required under disciplinary processes. Reports will be sent to IQAC along with supporting documents, such as photographs, that are geotagged and time stamped and circulars/flyers of the events.

Outcome: The committee will ensure a healthy and safe work environment where no staff or students will have a need to bring forward any harassment concerns in any form.