Make school kids aware of sexual harassment: Bombay High Court

Mumbai: The Bombay high court has said that awareness programmes against sexual harassment should be conducted in schools. A child should know how to speak and behave with colleagues to produce civilised adults in the country, the court observed. The comment came in the wake of an officer of the Maharashtra State Commission for Women (MSCW) informing the court that sexual harassment awareness programmes are being conducted at the college level.

A division bench of Justice Naresh Patil and Justice G.S. Kulkarni was hearing a PIL pertaining to the appointment of a chairperson and members for the MSCW. The court, last month, had suggested that if the MSCW cannot set up a cell in each district, it could start online registration of complaints so that women do not have to travel all the way to Mumbai to lodge a complaint. “Instead of a person coming to Mumbai, there should be a different mechanism, the online aspect to file grievances. The grievances could be sent to Mumbai online. Women community will be very happy with it (sic),” the court said.

Accordingly, the MSCW informed the court on Wednesday that it had created a website two years ago and also created an e-mail id for the registration of complaints.

A MSCW officer informed the court that the state had created a mobile application where women can register cases. She also said that the state government is taking steps at the district level with the help of NGOs and the women and child development department to scrutinise complaints and send them to the MSCW.

The court then asked, “What type of complaints have you received so far?”

To which the officer replied that more domestic violence cases had been registered compared to sexual harassment cases, and that a lot of cases dealt with elderly women complaining about their children not taking care of them.

She also said that awareness about sexual harassment is being created at the college level. “Why is awareness not being done in schools? Nowadays, children are smart; they know about the world. College students are adults. They don’t listen but the thinking of school children can be changed at the school level,” the court said.

The court further said that MSCW should not be only a complaint centre but also a solution centre.