#MeToo: 50 sexual harassment complaints at RBI till date

Central bank had set up committee to deal with sexual harassment in 1998

The Reserve Bank of India has seen 50 sexual harassment complaints to date. 

The number was revealed following an application filed by Business Standard under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. The central bank did not reveal a year-wise break-up on these complaints. However, an analysis of annual reports over the last five years shows two complaints. One for 2017 and the other for 2016.Additional complaints were from earlier years, according to an RBI spokesperson in an emailed statement. 

“We would like to clarify that the figure of 50 complaints mentioned in your query is cumulative number from 1998 when RBI set up its internal complaints committees,” it said. 

The annual figure of one corresponds to 0.027 complaints per 100 female employees. This works out to 2.7 complaints per 10,000 employees. The latter ratio allows for comparison with the banks that come under it which have tens of thousands of female employees. The Reserve Bank of India had 3,723 women employees at the end of calendar year 2017. 



 

Banks are also required to disclose details of female employees and sexual harassment complaints. The ratio is closer to 24 for six banks for which continuous data is available over the last three financial years, based on disclosures compiled from the listed companies’ business responsibility reports. 

 

An RBI source suggested that this could be because of cultural differences between the banks and the RBI, which prevents too many such instances at the regulator. But not all major organisations seem immune. A third of United Nations’ employees experienced sexual harassment, according to a report in January. 

The larger number at banks may also be evidence of better reporting. Instances of sexual harassment is upwards of seventeen per cent in India as mentioned in the first part of this series which dealt with issues at the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi). The banks’ figures, while also suggesting some under-reporting, is still better than the RBI. 

“When you are working in a very hierarchical organisation, which is also very gendered…generally, people don’t complain that easily,” said Shewli Kumar, an expert on sexual harassment matters and Associate Professor at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences.

She added that the preventive aspect of the law is hardly implemented in most organisations.

“The internal complaints committee has not just the role of…addressing complaints but also making sure that everybody in the organisation is trained, made aware…. there is…the publicity given to the law so that people know what it is that they should refrain from. But most organisations don’t do that. That is a problem….That’s why women don’t complain,” she said.  

Multiple committees deal with such issues at the central bank, according to the RBI’s statement. 

“As regards Reserve Banks’s preparedness to deal with such complaints, there is a robust system in place, consisting of two-tier mechanism with a Central Complaints Committee (CCC) constituted at the apex level and Regional Complaints Committee (RCC) at each regional office with eight and six members respectively including external representatives. Apart from the Committees, the Bank also has enlisted the support of trained counselors as first point contact, thereby ensuring sensitive handling of SH (sexual harassment) issues,” it said.  

The spokesperson added that sensitisation programs cover new recruits. There is also a protocol on dealing with such issues when it comes to external vendors.

“Gender sensitization starts right from induction in RBI. Several activities viz. workshops, seminars, awareness programmes etc. are organised by the Bank at various Regional Offices/Training Colleges for creating greater awareness and sensitising the employees. Committee members are also trained through special seminars. Banks’ contracts with external vendors contain specific clauses on sexual harassment-related matters,” it said. 

(This is the second of a three-part series looking at sexual harassment complaints and their disclosure at financial regulators. The third part will deal with the IRDAI. The first part can be read about disclosures at Sebi can be read here.)