Amit Shah to head panel on workplace sexual harassment

The panel also includes Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

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New Delhi: Home Minister Amit Shah will chair a panel of four cabinet ministers to examine ways to prevent workplace sexual harassment, a ministry spokesman said on Wednesday.

The new panel, which includes Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, was set up last week, a home ministry official told Reuters.

"The group of ministers was set up on July 18 since the previous panel lapsed ahead of the formation of the new government," spokesman Shelat Harit Ketan said.

The new government was formed after the general election victory of Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party in May.

The previous panel, which made no public recommendations, had been set up after the #MeToo online campaign to out alleged sexual harassers, which had begun in the US entertainment industry, took off in India in late 2018.

A year after the accusations surfaced, activists say the movement has gone quiet in India after some of the accused fought back with defamation suits.