The National Advisory Council, headed by Sonia Gandhi, today disapproved the exclusion of domestic workers from the purview of a proposed law for protection of women against sexual harassment at workplaces. The bill, introduced in the Lok Sabha during the winter session, aims to prevent harassment of women at the workplace by implied or overt promise of preferential treatment or threat or interference in work through intimidation. The NAC, which discussed the...

The National Advisory Council has suggested amendments to the Protection of Women against Sexual Harassment at Workplace Bill, 2010, and to the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Rules. It is also awaiting the comments of the Department of Personnel and Training (DOPT) to its suggestions on the new Right to Information Rules. Finally, in a bid to strengthen the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS),...

The National Advisory Council chaired by Congress president Sonia Gandhi today said the Forest Rights Act (FRA) needed strengthening and the Protection of Women against Sexual Harassment at Work Place Bill, 2010, must be extended to domestic workers. It also discussed how to push its views on the proposed National Food Security Bill, apart from deciding to examine the working of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme. Aat a meeting today...

Indian civil society was dismayed and horror-struck when human rights activist Dr Binayak Sen, who has spent over three decades caring for the poor in tribal areas of central India, was sentenced to life imprisonment for ‘sedition’ along with two others, Piyush Guha and Narayan Sanyal by a Raipur Sessions Court judge.  Protests are taking place everywhere in the country and the members of India’s vibrant civil society, peoples’ movements,...

The government on Tuesday introduced in the Lok Sabha a bill aimed at preventing sexual harassment of women at workplace in various forms, including implied or overt promise of preferential treatment or threat or interference in her work through intimidation. The Protection of Women Against Sexual Harassment at Workplace Bill, 2010, provides for mandatory setting up an internal committee by a company or any other institute to probe a written...