Close on the heels of the domestic violence act, women’s organisations are working on the passage of a Bill on sexual harassment at the workplace.

At a two-day workshop in the city by New Delhi-based WomenPowerConnect that began on Friday, activists called for the immediate passage of the Bill and suggested some changes in the draft drawn up by the National Commission of Women.

WomenPowerConnect, a coalition of 450 women’s groups and individuals, including its Calcutta partner Stree Shakti, said it would like to change the definition of “workplace” in the draft (see box).

“We would like to extend the definition to bring the new economy jobs, in the BPO sector and several unorganised sectors, under the Bill,” said Kumari, president, WomenPowerConnect. “Employees should have point-to-point protection. For BPO jobs, work starts from the moment they step into the office car from home.”

She added that the organisation would also press for a clause for time-barred justice. “We wouldn’t like the cases to drag on.”

The activists said that an “enabling environment”, which will encourage a woman employee to go ahead with her complaint. The draft says that every employer shall constitute a committee chaired by an employee, preferably a woman, and including not less than two employees committed to the cause of women and one member from an NGO.

Economist Nirmala Banerjee, vice-president of the organisation, said that the activists did not intend to ignore cases of harassment of the male employee. But cases of harassment of women, as with incidents of domestic violence against them, far outnumber cases in which men are victimised.

The activists want to meet chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Saturday to inform him of the rising number of domestic violence cases in West Bengal. “This should not happen in a progressive state,” said Kumari.

This year, 130 cases of domestic violence have been registered in the state till September; 116 were registered in 2005.

But the figures do not indicate the huge number of cases that are not reported.