Internal Committee

• A safe workplace is a woman’s legal right. The Constitutional doctrine of equality and personal liberty is contained in Articles 14, 15 and 21 of the Indian Constitution.
• All workplaces in India are mandated by law to provide a safe and secure working environment free from sexual harassment for all women. Three key obligations were imposed on institutions to meet that standard, namely: Prohibition, Prevention, Redress
• The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 was enacted to ensure safe working spaces for women and to build enabling work environments that respect women’s right to equality of status and opportunity.
• The Supreme Court defined sexual harassment as any unwelcome, sexually determined physical, verbal, or non-verbal conduct.
• The Supreme Court placed an obligation on workplaces, institutions and those in positions of responsibility, to uphold working women’s fundamental right to equality and dignity at the workplace.
• The Supreme Court , dated December 9, 2013, passed the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 (“PoSH Act”).
• The Ministry also formulated the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Rules, 2013 (“PoSH Rules”) effective from the same date in order to strengthen and streamline the provisions under the PoSH Act.
• The PoSH Act has been implemented with an aim to prevent and protect women from sexual harassment at the workplace.
• The PoSH Act, as mandatory compliance, requires every company/ institution having more than 10 (ten) employees to constitute an Internal Complaints Committee (“ICC”) in the prescribed manner in order to receive and address the complaints of any sort of sexual harassment from women in a time-bound and extremely confidential manner.

• Inform staff and students about ICC.
• Proactively move to curb all forms of harassment of staff and students.
• reat sexual harassment as a misconduct under service rules and initiate appropriate action if the perpetrator is an employee.
• reat sexual harassment as a violation of the disciplinary rules and take appropriate action if the perpetrator is a student.
• Since research scholars are particularly vulnerable, the HEIs must ensure that the guidelines for ethics for research supervision is put in place.

Prevention of Sexual Harassment (PoSH Act) “An Act to provide protection against sexual harassment of women at workplace and for the prevention and redressal of complaints of sexual harassment and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.”

• PoSH Cell of Anna University is committed to sensitizing the campus community on gender issues, addressing complaints from staff and students, prevent discrimination and sexual harassment against women, by promoting gender amity among students and employees and deal with cases of discrimination and sexual harassment against women, in a time bound manner.
• The Higher education department came out with detailed guidelines to prevent and redress harassment in institutions.
• "The main objective is to create safe campuses for students, staff and faculty to function without fear, threat and anxiety.”
• The institution has the duty to ensure that students and staff are treated with dignity and respect, free from abuse or harassment.
• The guidelines also stipulate the procedure to file a complaint and a formation of committee to look into the allegations.
• Moreover, conducting sensitization and awareness campaigns regarding the codes of conduct among all the people in educational institutions.
• Prevention/ elimination of harassment is EVERYONE'S responsibility
• It is important as well to ensure that the emphasis is on prevention rather than punitive action.