The Gender Sensitisation and Internal Complaints Committee (GSICC) of the Madras High Court has launched an online portal for women to lodge complaints related to sexual harassment within the precincts of the court complex.
Complaints could be lodged in English or Tamil through the portal on the High Court’s website. The complainant must first enter her mobile phone number and generate a One Time Password. The initiative for the online portal was taken by GSICC members Justices Pushpa Sathyanarayana, P.T.Asha and R.N.Manjula. An in-house software team of the computer wing of the court had created the portal.
Though not a single complaint was received in 2020 as the court had functioned virtually during most part of the year due to COVID-19, the committee had utilised the opportunity to conduct sensitisation programmes on gender equality for the court staff. Sarah Karunakaran and Moses Selvakumar of Madras School of Social Work and activist advocate D. Nagasaila were roped in to conduct the programme for 1,775 staff in 31 sessions.
