Paramilitary forces not adhering to norms on sexual harassment, says House panel

From The Hindu

Dec 4, 2010

Aarti Dhar

Parliamentary committee wants Supreme Court guidelines followed

NEW DELHI: A parliamentary committee has criticised the paramilitary forces, especially the Border Security Force, over lack of strict adherence to Supreme Court guidelines on sexual harassment.

The Committee on Empowerment of Women, in its report on ‘Women in Paramilitary Forces' tabled in both Houses of Parliament on Friday, said the guidelines of the Supreme Court “were not being scrupulously followed in the paramilitary forces.”

The report said it had been made mandatory for all paramilitary forces to set up complaint cells headed by lady officers to investigate cases of sexual harassment, in pursuance of the apex court judgment.

Little representation

As per the government policy, 10 per cent vacancies are to be filled by women in the forces. However, their representation is negligible, as it is 0.56 per cent in the BSF, 1.38 per cent in the Indo-Tibetan Border Police, 2.04 per cent in the Special Security Bureau and 0.90 per cent in the Assam Rifles.

Asking the Home Ministry to devise an effective mechanism to deal with cases of sexual harassment in the paramilitary forces, the panel expressed surprise over the practice of officers' wives judging such complaints lodged by women employees in the BSF.

“The committee is surprised to note that in some of these forces, especially the BSF, wives of officers listen to grievances of women employees which can never be unbiased or impartial as there have been cases where women employees were harassed by their seniors and the wives of senior officers sat on judgment,” the panel said.

The committee strongly recommended that the Ministry of Home Affairs ensure that the Supreme Court guidelines on sexual harassment were reiterated afresh so that all Central paramilitary forces followed them.

The committee also recommended that the practice of hearing such cases by wives of senior officers be “dispensed with immediately.”

‘Include woman NGO'

It observed that in some of the paramilitary forces, women members of non-governmental organisations were included in the sexual harassment committees. “The committee is of the firm opinion that a woman NGO must be invariably included in these committees to avoid intimidation of women victims by the male officers,” the report said.

The panel, headed by Chandresh Kumari, asked the Union Home Ministry to devise a “strict monitoring mechanism” to look into cases of sexual harassment in the forces.

It laid down a six-month timeline for completion of inquiry into such complaints.