1. The Act should be made applicable to all employees, irrespective of gender. The word woman should be replaced by the word employee in all appropriate places in the Draft Bill so as to render the proposed draft gender neutral.

2. No committee be formed unless to hear a specific complaint.

3. No remuneration, monetary or otherwise, be provided to the committee members or chairperson.

4. Instead of being gender biased and committed to the “cause of women”, the appointment of the Committee Chairperson and members should be on the basis of their integrity and their judicious approach.

5. No members, external to the employer organization, be allowed in the committee.

6. Any stipulation w.r.t. number of women in the Committee is unnecessary and makes a prejudiced assumption that only women are capable of arbitrating complaints. This, as well as the “commitment to the cause of women” is addressed by Suggestion #4.

7. Treating the offence of sexual harassment as a psychosocial offence, it is more important to focus on the presence of trained psychologists and behavioral therapists or at the very least managers trained in conducting fact based investigations on the panel as opposed to the number of women.  

8. The powers of the committee and the appeals process should be specified unambiguously.

9. Monetary compensation should not be a part of conciliation proceedings. This would to a large extent help avoid potential for misuse.

10. The complaint should be filed immediately on the occurrence of the alleged incident. Any complaint not filed within a stipulated time period (2 weeks) should be closely scrutinized for veracity before admission and the delay should be explained in writing by the complainant, to the satisfaction of the committee.

11. As prevalent in the western world, the Employer should bear the financial burden of the compensation ordered to the aggrieved person.

12. The committee should be divested of all powers to order any monetary compensation at any stage of the proceedings.

13. Mandatory action be taken against the complainant when the complaint is found to be frivolous or malicious.

14. Falsely accused person should have the right to pursue justice in a court of law, and claim appropriate redressal as remedy for the mental trauma, pain, suffering, emotional distress and social censure caused to the falsely accused person.

15. Section 11(4) should read as :
“Provided that where the employer or the District Officer is not in agreement with any conclusion arrived at or recommendation made by the committee or the Local Committee, he may alter the conclusion or recommendation after recording the reasons of his disagreement in writing.

16. In the event the complainant or the respondent wishes to pursue the matter in the judiciary, the enquiry report be provided to the concerned party.

17. This act should be reviewed every 2 years to adjudicate its effectiveness and then re-ratified, failing which it should be deemed expired.

18. Quantitative Research be undertaken by the Govt. to determine the nature and extent of Sexual Harassment at workplace.

19. The scope and ambit of the Sexual harassment bill needs to be appropriately defined. In particular, Households and home dwellings need to be excluded from the list of workplaces, as it imposes considerable responsibilities on the household (including constitution of committees etc.), the execution of which may not be feasible.

20. The bill should clearly and unambiguously state the actions that amount to sexual harassment and the actions which can not be construed as sexual harassment.