Shrine Board holds awareness session on sexual harassment at workplace

Katra : Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board (SMVDSB) on Friday organised an awareness workshop on ‘sexual harassment at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013’ at Spiritual Growth Centre in Katra town of Reasi district.
The Shrine Board spokesman said that the workshop aimed at creating awareness among the employees regarding various types of sexual harassments at work place and laws related to the same.
The session began with a welcome address by Navneet Singh, Additional Chief Executive Officer, SMVDSB who briefed the importance of the session and underlined the need to create awareness about the Act to ensure that the female employees do not face any discomfort at workplaces.
The session was presided by the resource person Advocate, Neeta Verma, President-Human Rights Mission (J&K) also holding profiles like Director, National Campaign amongst Students, while delivering her lecture, deliberated in detail about the subject and sensitized the participants about the provisions of the Act.
Discussion about various laws, rules and regulations with recent enactment with Judgements in context to sexual harassment namely, Indian Penal Code, Criminal Procedures Code and Information Technology Act also took place.
Besides, how to prevent abuse of harassment was also deliberated in length.
She further dwelt on the Vishakha Guidelines and gave insights about the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act 2013.
She also shared the importance and working of the Internal Complaint Committee in the institutions and at the workplace to address the challenges of harassment and its prevention, he said.
Anshul Garg, Chief Executive Officer, SMVDSB while appreciating such workshops said that every employee must be aware of the such laws and redressal mechanism as these sessions goes beyond the Act and covers what the precursors to sexual harassment are and how anyone can be a change agent, thus perpetuating an environment of safety, trust and fairness at the workplace.
The spokesman said that more than 50 female employees of SMVDSB from various cadres attended the workshop.
The session was very interactive and the participants raised many queries and shared their observations and experiences and concluded with details of how any organization can take preventive measures against sexual harassment