An employer with ten or more workers in his/her organisation is mandated by law to constitute an Internal Complaints Committee in the office for the redressal of complaints of sexual harassment faced by employees. This ensures that employees at established workplaces have the opportunity to approach a competent authority under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 (“Act“). However, millions of workplaces across the country have fewer than ten workers, by virtue of which, there is no redressal mechanism for their complaints within the organisation they work at. It is at this juncture that the aggrieved parties approach the Local Complaints Committee (“LCC”).

The Local Complaints Committee is a body constituted for the redressal of complaints of sexual harassment which are filed by employees in organisations which have fewer than ten employees. The responsibility for constituting an LCC is on the District Officer. The problem lies in the fact that the District Officers are not appointed in a majority of the districts in the country. This leads to the Local Complaints Committees not being constituted in those districts. While it may not always be obvious, the impact of not having an LCC can be quite severe. LCCs come into play in those cases where the complaints are from employees who work in smaller workplaces face sexual harassment, and rendering them unable to work in the environment created. In its own right, any case of sexual harassment deserves to be taken very seriously. However, the reality is that the same does not hold true for those workplaces which have fewer than ten employees.

A majority of workplaces in our country have fewer than ten employees. This includes the shops one would visit on a daily basis or even restaurants. In such workplaces, there is no ICC constituted as it is not the responsibility of the employer. An aggrieved employee can only approach the LCC in case she has been sexually harassed. When there is no Local Complaints Committee constituted, this becomes impossible and the victims are unable to make their complaints heard. A majority of the ‘workplaces’ that one would see in a day would fall under this category. While the number of workers in each workplace is relatively few, there are a large number of such instances which go unreported simply because the person is unaware of her right, or even if she is aware of them, there is no body for the redressal of the same.

In most of these cases, the person aggrieved is unaware of the fact that a Local Complaints Committee is mandated by the law. They are forced to reconcile themselves to the fact that there is no way for them to enforce their rights. This is further due to the lack of awareness regarding the laws related to issues of sexual harassment and the rights available to victims. Another issue in such cases is that victims of sexual harassment are unable to afford quality legal counsel and are unaware that it is compulsory for an LCC to be formed. Due to the lack of proper means of addressing such claims, the victims are unable to bring about any action against the offenders. The lack of deterrence results in there being no reduction in such cases at workplaces.

The lack of an LCC also affects the 4.2 million domestic workers in the country. The individuals employed in such cases are usually unaware that even their employer’s house would fall under the definition of a workplace. Thus, they are left believing that even if they are harassed while working, there is no way for them to obtain any relief. The only body for the redressal of their complaints in such cases, which is the LCC, not having been constituted has a severe impact on their lives.

The lack of a Local Complaints Committee in a district has a severe impact on the effective implementation of the Act. As a majority of the workers in everyday establishments do not have an ICC constituted in their workplace, they are left with nowhere to go. They further lack the legal guidance for the same, not knowing that an LCC must mandatorily be constituted in their district. The impact of not having an LCC be constituted in one’s district is that it prevents employees in smaller workplaces from getting any redressal to their complaints. This poses a great challenge to the effective implementation of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, 2013 in India.