Mahua Maji at the news meet in Ranchi on Thursday. Picture by Hardeep Singh

Ranchi, Nov. 28: Jharkhand State Commission for Women has fast-tracked an initiative to ensure all offices in the state have women’s grievance cells in a prompt reaction to the national fury over Tehelka chief Tarun Tejpal’s alleged sexual misconduct.

Mahua Maji, the commission’s chairperson, wrote to chief secretary R.S. Sharma today asking him to ensure all workplaces in Jharkhand that employ women, including government and corporate offices and private firms, start their grievance cells.

Though the Supreme Court made it compulsory for the constitution of a grievance cell — loosely called anti-sexual harassment cell — in every office 16 years ago, most working women don’t know if it exists in their office.

Even Tehelka did not have such a cell.

In 1997, the Supreme Court laid down Vishakha guidelines to counter sexual harassment at workplace in the wake of social worker Bhanwari Devi’s gang-rape in Rajasthan. Based on it, The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, was framed.

“All working women must know their rights and feel safe,” Maji said.