The Government of India today constituted a Group of Ministers (Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman and Maneka Gandhi) headed by Home Minister Rajnath Singh, to strengthen the legal and institutional frameworks to deal with, and prevent sexual harassment at workplace.


The GoM will revisit the requirement of filing a complaint within three months of the date of offence as per the 2013 law on prevention of sexual harassment. Other lacunae in the laws of sexual harassment will also be reviewed.


The proposal comes after Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi proposed the formation of a legal panel to look into the legal and institutional framework in place for handling complaints of sexual harassment, including some of the complaints if required, and advise the ministry on how to strengthen these.


India's #MeToo movement, which started with Tanushree Dutta alleging actor Nana Patekar harassed her during a film shoot in 2008, has escalated sharply with increasing numbers of women coming forward with their complaints against various personalities.


M J Akbar who resigned as Minister of State for External Affairs, film director Subhash Ghai, Sajid Khan, Vikas Behl, actors Rajat Kapoor and Alok Nath are among those accused of sexual misconduct.