This week, the Uttar Pradesh (UP) government announced a meaningful update to the SHe-Box portal. SHe-Box is a government-run online complaint system where women can submit their complaints of sexual harassment, and it will be redirected to the relevant authority that has jurisdiction.
With this new change, UP becomes one of the first states to link the portal with its Lok Seva Guarantee Act, meaning complaints will now have to be addressed within a set timeframe.
Why this matters
Too often, when someone gathers the courage to report harassment, what follows is silence. Or waiting. Or feeling like the system might forget. For many, the hardest part isn’t just what happened but what didn’t happen afterwards. The absence of follow-up. The lack of clarity.
But with this upgrade, there’s a promise: your complaint will be heard, and it will be acted on, in time. That small shift can make a big difference in safety at the workplace.
It’s not just about a digital portal. This move also means that all private and public workplaces in the state must be registered on SHe-Box. Once an organisation is listed, it becomes a visible part of the ecosystem, and they are committed to dealing with sexual harassment responsibly.
Government departments will now appoint and train nodal officers to handle these complaints. This means the person responding won’t just be ticking boxes, but doing so with an understanding of the situation.
Often, when a case is registered, there is a lingering thought about whether something is being done about the complaint. One of the most powerful parts of SHe-Box is that complaints can now be tracked in real time, reducing the anxiety that comes with not knowing if your case is being addressed at all.
What can we take from this?
When someone experiences harassment, one of the hardest things is deciding to speak up. And often, what happens after that – the waiting, the dismissals, the uncertainty- can be more painful than the incident itself. This update paves the path to dealing with a lot of it.
This upgrade is a step — a public acknowledgement that women deserve to feel safe, not just in principle, but in practice.Contact us at hello@serein.in to know more about SHe-Box and our trainings for organisations under the PoSH Act.