Centre for Internet and Society

NETmundial - Comparing Appearance of Fifty Most Frequent Words

sumandro — 2014-04-25T09:59:13Z

This set of analysis of the contributions submitted to NETmundial 2014 is part of the effort by the Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore, India, to enable productive discussions of the critical internet governance issues at the meeting and elsewhere.

Image above: Comparing Absolute Appearance of Fifty Most Frequent Words

Image above: Comparing Relative Appearance of Fifty Most Frequent Words

Created by Sumandro using R.
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These heatmaps compare the appearance of fifty most frequently appearing words (for all 187 contributions) across the contributions made by different types of organisation. Click on them to see the larger images. Hit *escape* to come back to this page.

The first heatmap shows the absolute appearance of the words -- that is the total number of times each word appears in contributions by a type of organisation.

The second heatmap shows the relative appearance of the words -- that is the ratio of the word's appearance in contribution by a type of organisation divided by total number of contributions by that type of organisation.

The Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore, India, is a non-profit research organization that works on policy issues relating to freedom of expression, privacy, accessibility for persons with disabilities, access to knowledge and IPR reform, and openness, and engages in academic research on digital natives and digital humanities. The analysis was done by Geetha Hariharan, Jyoti Pandey, and Sumandro Chattapadhyay, with data entry support from Chandrasekhar.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/net-mundial-comparing-appearance-of-fifty-most-frequent-words

NETmundial - Contributions by Types of Organisation

sumandro — 2014-04-25T09:57:11Z

This Sankey diagram shows all the countries/regions from where contributions have come in on the left side, and all the various types of organisations on the right side. Use the mouse cursor to hover over a country to see what proportion of the submissions from that country has come from which type of organisation, or hover over an organisation type to see what proportion of submission from such organisations have come in from which countries.

The height of the blue bars next to the country/region names and organisation types indicate at the respective proportions among all the contributions.

Certain submissions have been contributed by global organisations, such as Internet Society, ICANN and Commonwealth agencies. These submissions have been included in the 'Global' division in the above chart.

Created by Sumandro using Google Charts.
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The visualisations are done by Sumandro Chattapadhyay, based on data compilation and analysis by Jyoti Pandey, and with data entry suport from Chandrasekhar.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/net-mundial-contributions-by-types-of-organisation

Tito Dutta

sumandro — 2018-08-21T06:14:01Z

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/Members/tito_dutta.jpg

Sailesh Patnaik

sumandro — 2018-08-21T06:35:18Z

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/Members/sailesh_patnaik.JPG

Pavan Santhosh

sumandro — 2018-08-21T06:55:41Z

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/Members/pavan_santhosh.jpg

Pranav Manjesh Bidare

sumandro — 2018-08-21T08:50:36Z

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/Members/pranav_bidare.jpg

Shweta Mohandas

sumandro — 2018-08-21T08:51:46Z

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/Members/shweta_mohandas.jpg

Saumyaa Naidu

sumandro — 2018-08-21T08:54:56Z

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/Members/saumyaa_naidu.jpg

Khetrimayum Monish Singh

sumandro — 2018-08-21T09:43:07Z

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/Members/khetrimayum_monish_singh.jpg

Aayush Rathi

sumandro — 2018-08-21T12:43:02Z

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/Members/aayush_rathi.png

Ranjit Singh

sumandro — 2018-09-27T09:31:48Z

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/about/people/ranjitsingh_photo.jpg

Policy on Prohibition of Sexual Harassment

sumandro — 2024-12-02T23:23:15Z

This page states CIS' policies against sexual harassment of women at its workplaces. The Policy on Prohibition and Redressal of Sexual Harassment Against Women establishes the Internal Committee (IC) and deals with the definition, prohibition, prevention, and redressal of sexual harassment at its workplace. The names and contact details of the current members of the IC are also provided. Other applicable CIS policies in this area include Workplace Fraternisation Policy and Guidelines for Interactions with Interns. All policies are published below.

For reporting complaints and information about an incident of harassment at CIS or involving CIS members, please contact any of the following Internal Committee members (IC) below. The IC recognizes that such reporting requires sharing of personal and sensitive information. The IC is an independent body at CIS and is bound by strict rules to appropriately handle such information and maintain confidentiality — as described in the policy below.

Official email: ic.cisindia[at]protonmail[dot]com

Chiara Furtado: Presiding Officer, Bengaluru, profile, and chiarafurtado.cis[at]protonmail[dot]com

Mishika Singh: External Member, New Delhi, profile, and neevlegalaid[at]gmail[dot]com

Yatharth: Member, Bengaluru, profile, and yatharthCIS[at]protonmail[dot]com

Garima Agrawal, Member, Goa, profile, and garima.icc[at]proton[dot]me

Frequently Asked Questions about the Policy on Prohibition of Sexual Harassment

Policy on Prohibition And Redressal of Sexual Harassment Against Women

1. Preliminary

1.1 This Policy on Prohibition and Redressal of Sexual Harassment Against Women ("Policy") states the internal policy of the Centre for Internet and Society ("CIS") with regard to the definition, prohibition, prevention, and redressal of sexual harassment of women at its workplaces.

1.2 CIS is committed to creating and maintaining a safe, secure and comfortable workplace, free from impropriety, indignity and fear, for all people at its workplace.

Accordingly, CIS requires all members to undergo mandatory anti-sexual harassment training at regular intervals. CIS shall also ensure that its management and staff remain attentive and responsive to the issue of sexual harassment at the workplace; and, that other people (interns, consultants, etc.) who are granted access to CIS’ workplace are made aware of this Policy.

Further, the CIS Internal Committee (IC) is empowered to investigate complaints or allegations of sexual harassment against women and address them in a timely, impartial and sensitive manner.

Further, in an extraordinary situation where the CIS management or the CIS Board reasonably believes that there may be a case of sexual harassment pertaining to any current member of CIS, including the Executive Director, and in the situation where the jurisdiction of the IC is unclear, CIS commits to undertaking an investigation either at the executive, Board level, or through an independent third-party expert(s). CIS is commited to ensuring the investigation is impartial and follows due process.

1.3 This Policy is without prejudice to the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 that was enacted into law on April 22, 2013. Sexual harassment of women, within or outside a workplace, is further defined and criminalized under section 354A of the Indian Penal Code, 1860.

2. What is Sexual Harassment?

2.1 For the purposes of this Policy, sexual harassment, includes any one or more of the following unwelcome acts or behaviour, experienced by a woman, whether directly or by implication, committed in person/ on print or via computer/ phone/ other media:

(i) physical contact and advances involving unwelcome and explicit sexual overtures;

(ii) a demand or request for sexual favours;

(iii) making obscene/ sexually coloured remarks or remarks of a obscene/ sexual nature about a woman's clothing or body;

(iv) showing pornography, making or posting sexual pranks, sexual teasing;

(v) repeatedly asking to socialize during off-duty hours or continued expressions of sexual/ romantic interest against a woman’s wishes;

(vi) deprecatory comments, conduct or any such behaviour based on the gender identity or sexual orientation of a woman;

(vi) voyeurism; or

(vii) stalking;

(viii) any other unwelcome physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct of a sexual nature.

Further, occurrence of any of the following circumstances in relation to any sexually determined act or behavior amounts to sexual harassment:

(ix) implied or explicit promise of preferential or detrimental treatment in employment;

(x) implied or explicit threat about present or future employment status;

(xi) interference with the woman’s work or creating an intimidating or offensive or hostile work environment; or

(xii) humiliating treatment likely to affect the woman’s health or safety.

2.3 If in pursuit of a legitimate professional objective or in the ordinary course of work, it is necessary to carry out any activity, including discussion, viewing, reading or other handling of issues or material related to sex, sexuality, pornography or other activities of a sexual nature, such activity will not amount to sexual harassment provided that care is taken to ensure that such activity is carried out in a professional, respectful and dignified manner.

2.4. Finally, it should be noted that the allegation of sexual harassment depends on the experience of the aggrieved woman, and not on the intentions of the respondent.

3. Who may Complain of Sexual Harassment?

3.1 CIS shall entertain complaints of sexual harassment from any individual where either the aggrieved woman is a member of CIS or a third party, whether contractually employed at CIS or not, allege to have been subject to sexual harassment at CIS’ workplace.

For the purposes of this policy, the ‘aggrieved woman’ means the woman who alleges to have been subject to sexual harassment; , and the ‘respondent’ means a person against whom the aggrieved woman has filed a complaint under the provisions of this policy.

For the purposes of this policy, woman refers to persons self-identifying as women, including cisgender and transgender women.

3.2. Members may include any person engaged by CIS for any work, whether of regular, temporary or ad hoc basis, either directly or through an agent, including a contractor, with or without the knowledge of the principal employer, whether for remuneration or not, or working on a voluntary basis or otherwise, whether the terms of employment are express or implied and includes a co-worker, a contract worker, probationer, trainee, intern or apprentice.

Accordingly, employees, whether on probation or permanent; staff; fellows; distinguished fellows; consultants; interns; board and society members are included as members of CIS.

3.3 CIS’ workplace includes its offices in Delhi and Bengaluru as well as any place or medium of interaction, nationally, internationally, and virtually, where the members visit in the broad context of their work, during the course of employment and/or arising out of any form of engagement with CIS.

4. Internal Committee (IC)

4.1 CIS has constituted an Internal Committee ("IC"), which serves its offices in Delhi and Bengaluru.

Name	Location	Designation	E-mail
Chiara Furtado	Bengaluru	Presiding Officer	chiarafurtado.cis[at]protonmail[dot]com
Mishika Singh	New Delhi	External Member	neevlegalaid[at]gmail[dot]com
Yatharth	Bengaluru	Member	yatharthCIS[at]protonmail[dot]com
Garima Agrawal	Goa	Member	garima.icc[at]proton[dot]me

5. How to Make a Complaint Of Sexual Harassment?

5.1 An aggrieved woman who alleges to have been subject to an act of sexual harassment may submit a complaint, in writing, to any member of the IC. Alternatively, the aggrieved woman may email the complaint to the IC at ic.cisindia[at]protonmail[dot]com, preferably from a non-organisational email account (for security purposes).

(i) The complaint should be made within a period of three months from the date of incident and in case of a series of incidents, within a period of three months from the date of last incident:

Provided that where such complaint cannot be made in writing, the Presiding Officer or any member of the IC shall render all reasonable assistance to the woman for making the complaint in writing:

Provided further that the IC may, for the reasons to be recorded in writing, extend the time limit not exceeding three months, if it is satisfied that the circumstances were such which prevented the woman from filing a complaint within the said period.

(ii) Where the aggrieved woman is unable to make a complaint on account of her physical or mental incapacity or death or otherwise, her legal heir, relative, friend, co-worker, or any woman having the knowledge of the incident may make a complaint to the Presiding Officer of the IC or, subject to the following limitations:

The complaint should be made within a period of three months from the date of incident and in case of a series of incidents, within a period of three months from the date of last incident.

Provided further that the IC may, for the reasons to be recorded in writing, extend the time limit not exceeding three months, if it is satisfied that the circumstances were such which prevented the woman from filing a complaint within the said period.

(iii) Extraordinary situation: “Extraordinary situation” would include situations where the jurisdiction of the IC is unclear (for example, in cases where the limitation period has lapsed), including a potential case against the Executive Director.

In such situations, where the CIS management or the CIS Board reasonably believe that there may be a case of sexual harassment pertaining to any current member of CIS, CIS commits to undertaking an inquiry either at the executive, Board level, or through an independent third party. CIS commits to ensuring the inquiry is impartial and follows due process.
It should be noted that in case of an allegation/ complaint against the Executive Director, an alternate remedy is also available to complainants under section 6(1) of the Sexual Harassment of Women at the Workplace Act, where the Local Committee is empowered to inquiry complaints. The complainant has the option of selecting either forum.
The external entity, in receiving, conducting inquiry into, disposing of, and otherwise handling, complaints, adheres to the procedure below, in proper compliance with the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013.

5.2 Receiving the Complaint

(i) The IC shall take cognizance of the complaint at the earliest and in any case within ten working days of receiving the complaint. The Presiding Officer will constitute an Inquiry Committee of at least three IC members to conduct the inquiry and prepare the report.

(ii) A complete copy of the complaint and other supporting documents, including evidence and statements of witnesses shall be sent to the respondent within ten working days of receiving the complaint.

(iii) Upon receiving a copy of the complaint, the respondent shall submit his reply to the complaint to the Inquiry Committee, along with supporting documents within a period of ten working days.

(iv) The Inquiry Committee shall share the complete copy of the respondent’s reply and the supporting documents, including evidence and statements of witnesses with the aggrieved woman within 10 working days of receiving it.

5.2.1 Resolution through Conciliation

(i) Once the complaint and reply are received, before initiating the inquiry the IC may take steps to conciliate the complaint between the aggrieved woman and the respondent.

(ii) This shall be initiated only if requested by the aggrieved woman in writing.

(iii) It should be made clear to all parties that conciliation in itself doesn’t necessarily mean acceptance of the complaint by the respondent. It is a practical mechanism through which issues are resolved or misunderstandings cleared.

(iv) In case a settlement is arrived at, the IC will record and report the same to the Executive Director for taking appropriate action. If conciliation fails and/or no settlement is reached between the parties, the IC shall proceed to conduct a formal inquiry into the complaint.

(v) The IC shall provide copies of the settlement to the aggrieved woman and the respondent. Once the action is implemented, no further inquiry is conducted.

(vi) If the respondent and/ or Executive Director fail to implement the terms of the settlement, the aggrieved woman may request the IC to conduct a formal inquiry into the complaint.

(vii) No monetary settlement shall be made as a basis of conciliation.

5.2.2 Conducting a Formal Inquiry

(i) The IC commits to conducting a prompt, thorough, and impartial inquiry of a complaint as necessary and appropriate, in accordance with the principles of natural justice.

(ii) Upon receipt of a complaint, the Presiding Officer and two members shall at a meeting specially convened for this purpose, constitute from amongst its members a quorum of at least three members known as the Inquiry Committee to examine, conduct the inquiry, and prepare a report. The Inquiry Committee shall be notified to the parties prior to commencement of the inquiry and hearings, and will not be changed unless a situation mentioned in section 4(5) of the Act presents itself. Majority of the members of the Inquiry Committee shall be women.

The Inquiry Committee shall be subject to the following rules:

(i) Both parties shall be given the opportunity to appear before the Inquiry Committee and present their case and/or submit names of any witnesses or documentary evidence substantiating their case.

(ii) The Inquiry Committee shall have the power to call upon any such witnesses and record their statements. The proceedings shall be conducted in such language as may be familiar to the aggrieved woman and the respondent.

(iii) Absent exceptional circumstances, the aggrieved woman and respondent should inform the Inquiry Committee in writing at least 24 hours in advance of the hearing the names of any witnesses he/she wishes to testify. Any information shared during a hearing is confidential.

(iv) An aggrieved woman or respondent shall not question each other or other witnesses directly but may raise questions to be asked of that party through the Inquiry Committee, which will determine whether to ask them.

(v) The minutes of the proceedings shall be recorded in English and where the aggrieved woman or the respondent is not conversant with English, in addition, in such language as may be familiar to them.

(vI) If a party is not present for more than 3 consecutive hearings, without sufficient cause, the Inquiry Committee may, after giving that party a notice of 15 days, give an ex parte decision on the complaint or terminate the complaint.

(viI) The Inquiry Committee will make every effort to complete its inquiry within 90 days of a complaint of sexual harassment.

(viii) The Inquiry Report of the Inquiry Committee, including its decision and recommendations, and reasons for arriving at such a decision, shall be communicated to the concerned parties and the Executive Director, in writing, at the earliest and in any case within 10 working days of completion of the inquiry.

Notification of the decision and the reasons shall be individually communicated to the respondent and the aggrieved woman on the same day.

(ix) If the allegations against the respondent are proved to be true, the Inquiry Committee shall also recommend the penalties or corrective/restorative action that may be taken against him/ her to the Executive Director.

(x) The Executive Director shall act on the recommendation of the Inquiry Committee within a period of 60 days from the date of the receipt of the Inquiry Report, unless an appeal against the findings is filed within that period by either party.

5.3 Interim Relief for the Aggrieved Woman

(i) During the pendency of the inquiry, or during the pendency of the investigation by the police, on a written request made by the aggrieved woman or otherwise, the Inquiry Committee may recommend to the Executive Director to:

Transfer the aggrieved woman or the respondent to any other workplace; or
Suspend the respondent; ask them to work from home, or go on leave - for the duration of the inquiry; or
Grant leave to the aggrieved woman, for a period of three months maximum, in addition to the leave she would be otherwise entitled; or
Prevent the respondent and/ or Executive Director from assessing the aggrieved woman’s work performance; or
Grant such other relief as may be appropriate including:

Pass an order restraining all communication between respondent and various CIS members;
Pass an order restraining all communication between respondent and any CIS member which is likely to influence the inquiry;
Any other measure to inspire confidence in various members of the workplace that CIS is committed to providing a safe working environment.

Once the recommendations of interim relief are implemented, the Executive Director will inform the IC regarding the same.

(iI) The Inquiry Committee shall also suo motu examine the inherent power asymmetry and/or the vulnerability of the aggrieved woman in such cases and take steps to ensure that the aggrieved woman is not subjected to a hostile environment during the inquiry. These steps include, but are not limited to, directing the respondent to cease communication with the complainant or asking the respondent to work from home. The determination shall be done on a case-by-case basis.

A “hostile environment” is created when one’s acts or behaviours with sexual undertones at a workplace creates an environment that is uncomfortable for the complainant which in turn could affect one’s health and work performance or create an intimidating, hostile or offensive employment.

5.4 Malicious Allegations

(i) Where the Inquiry Committee arrives at the conclusion that the allegation against the respondent is malicious, or the aggrieved woman or any other person making the complaint has made the complaint knowing it to be false, or the aggrieved woman or any other person making the complaint has produced any forged or misleading document, it may recommend to the Executive Director to take action against the aggrieved woman or the person making the complaint. This includes remedial and restorative steps of undertaking training or counselling, and coupled with proportionate actions including warning, suspension and disciplinary action, depending on the seriousness of the case.

While deciding malicious intent, the Inquiry Committee will consider that mere inability to substantiate a complaint need not mean malicious intent. Malicious intent must be clearly established through a separate inquiry.

5.5 Confidentiality

The identity of the aggrieved woman, respondent, witnesses, statements and other evidence obtained in the course of the inquiry process, recommendations of the IC, and action taken by the Executive Director are considered as confidential material, and will not be published or made known to the public or media.

Any woman contravening the confidentiality clause is subject to disciplinary action as prescribed in the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, wherever applicable.

5.6 Appeal

Any party not satisfied or further aggrieved by the decision of the IC, recommendations made by the IC or the implementation or non-implementation of such recommendations, may appeal to the appellate authority in accordance with the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, within 90 days of the recommendations being communicated, wherever applicable.

5.7 Prohibition of Retaliation

CIS Members, including the Society and Board members, directors and management will not intimidate or take any retaliatory action (direct or indirect) against a woman who files a complaint or provides testimony/ evidence regarding a complaint in good faith.

Types of retaliation that are prohibited include but are not limited to:

(i) Intimidation;

(ii) Interference with the woman’s work or creating an intimidating or offensive or hostile work environment;

(iii) Termination of employment;

(iv) Failing to hire or consider for hire or promotion; and

(iv) Adversely impacting working conditions or otherwise denying any employment benefit to an employee

Note that an adverse disciplinary action against a CIS member whose conduct or performance warrants such action for reasons unrelated to the reporting of a complaint will not be deemed a violation of this clause.

Individuals who are concerned about retaliation should approach the Presiding Officer of the IC at chiarafurtado.cis[at]protonmail[dot]com or the External member of the IC at neevlegalaid[at]gmail[dot]com. Such concerns will be addressed on priority.

A conclusion of malicious allegation made by the aggrieved woman shall be investigated by the Inquiry Committee as per clause 5.4 of this policy.

Workplace Fraternisation Policy

This policy applies to CIS members, including permanent and temporary staff, consultants, Board and Society members, Fellows, individuals sharing the workplace, interns and any other person in a professional role in the organization.
‘Fraternization’ for the purposes of this policy refers to consensual romantic or sexual relationships and interactions.
CIS members in a supervisory or managerial position are expected to be strictly professional in their interactions with colleagues in junior positions owing to their capacity to affect decisions and conditions of employment of junior colleagues.
Romantic or sexual relationships and interactions that may develop between CIS members across levels of hierarchy should be immediately disclosed by the senior CIS member either to their immediate supervisor, or the programme Director, or a member of the senior staff team, with a request to be relieved from any direct or indirect supervisory role with respect to the junior CIS member. This is to address concerns of favoritism, nepotism, misuse of authority, exploitation and sexual harassment that may potentially arise.
This policy also applies to interns. For further information, please see the separate policy on ‘Guidelines on Interaction with Interns’, below.
Failure to comply with this policy, including failure to disclose romantic or sexual relationships and interactions, especially in cases which lead to potential conflict of interest, or cause misuse of authority and harassment, will be treated as a serious violation of professional standards and will invite disciplinary action by the organisation.
CIS recognizes that such disclosure entails sharing of information that is personal and sensitive in nature. Accordingly, the senior staff team is obligated to keep such information confidential and restrict it to the immediate chain of command, except in the instance of a disciplinary action or an IC inquiry. The team must ensure that such disclosures do not have any adverse effects on conditions of employment of both parties involved, either.
This policy is also in accordance with CIS’ policy on Prohibition and Redressal of Sexual Harassment Against Women. Any instance of non-consensual romantic or sexual relationship or interactions between CIS members, including those that result from misuse of authority amount to sexual harassment and will be subject to an IC inquiry and attract severe action up to and including suspension and termination of association or employment with CIS.
CIS is committed to creating a safe and harmonious working environment, and all members are encouraged to maintain professional standards of conduct at the workplace. This also includes being cognizant of personal interactions to ensure that it does not negatively impact work productivity, culture of teamwork, and comfort and safety of the working environment. Personal discussions or disputes in romantic or sexual relationships must be kept outside the workplace.
CIS members must be respectful of privacy of colleagues in romantic relationships and refrain from monitoring any colleagues’ behaviour or share personal information. Gossip, rumors, inappropriate jokes and comments are prohibited; and instances of such behaviour, if noticed, may be reported to any member of the senoir staff and may invite disciplinary action.

Guidelines for Interactions with Interns

CIS interns are professionals occupying the CIS workplace for a brief period, who do not enjoy full benefits and protections available to other CIS members. Therefore, CIS places a positive duty of care on all CIS members to treat interns with utmost respect and professional support.

CIS members, including permanent/temporary staff, consultants, board and society members, fellows, individuals sharing our workplace, and any other person in a potential supervisory role should be scrupulously professional and respectful in their interactions with interns, both at the workplace and outside it.

Any instance of unprofessional or disrespectful behaviour with interns will invite strict disciplinary action against CIS members. CIS' Workplace Fraternisation policy also applies to interns — any romantic or intimate relationships that may develop between a CIS member and an intern should be immediately disclosed by the CIS member to the senior staff, with a request to be relieved from any direct or indirect supervisory role.

All interns are covered by CIS’ policy on Prevention of Sexual Harassment at the workplace. Any instance of non-consensual romantic/intimate relationships or interactions between a CIS member and an intern, including those that result from misuse of authority may amount to misconduct and/or sexual harassment and be subject to inquiry and disciplinary action by senior staff

Failure to disclose a personal relationship with an intern will be treated as a serious violation of professional standards and will invite disciplinary action.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/about/policy-on-prohibition-of-sexual-harassment

Frequently Asked Questions about the Policy on Prohibition of Sexual Harassment

sumandro — 2023-09-05T10:11:10Z

Here are the answers to some of the frequently asked questions about the Policy on Prohibition of Sexual Harassment at the CIS. Please write to ic.cisindia[at]protonmail[dot]com for any further clarification, including other questions, as well as to submit a complaint.

Policy on Prohibition of Sexual Harassment

1. What constitutes sexual harassment?

Illustratively, physical harassment includes touching, hugging, kissing, pinching, blocking path, brushing against someone, invading someone’s personal space in a bid to attempt body contact.

Verbal harassment includes using obscenities, making suggestive comments or jokes, inappropriate humour, making threats, repeatedly making romantic propositions against a woman’s wishes, making sexual propositions, remarks on clothing or physical attributes.

Non-verbal harassment includes staring, obscene gestures, displaying/ sending sexual content on print/ computer/ phone/ other media, sexually suggestive glances.

However, if in pursuit of a legitimate professional objective or in the ordinary course of work it is necessary to carry out any activity, including discussion, viewing, reading or other handling of issues or material related to sex, sexuality, pornography or other activities of a sexual nature, such activity will not amount to sexual harassment provided that care is taken to ensure that such activity is carried out in a professional, respectful and dignified manner.

Finally, it should be noted that sexual harassment is made out from the experience of the aggrieved woman, and not by the intentions of the accused.

Under CIS’ policy, any woman can make a complaint against any such non-consensual acts or behavior. CIS has zero-tolerance for any kind of harassment.

For the purposes of this policy, woman refers to persons self-identifying as women, including cisgender and transgender women.

2. What is consent?

Legally, consent means an unequivocal voluntary agreement when a woman by words, gestures or any form of verbal or non-verbal communication, communicates willingness to participate in any sexually determined behaviour or pattern of conduct.

Consent must be ongoing and applies only to the specific sexually determined behaviour or pattern of conduct the initiator seeks to engage in.

Consent can be revoked at any point. Silence or lack of resistance cannot be construed as consent.

3. Who can make a complaint against sexual harassment? Can a third party file a complaint?

The policy applies to everyone at CIS’ workplace, and protects all women, whether employed contractually or not. CIS members and third-parties (women) can submit a complaint under this policy, against any CIS member or third-party to report an incident that occurred at the CIS workplace or committed via any other mode of communication. For the purposes of this policy, woman refers to persons self-identifying as women, including cisgender and transgender women.

Members include anyone engaged by CIS for any work, whether whether of regular, temporary or ad hoc basis, either directly or through an agent, including a contractor, with or without the knowledge of the Executive Director, whether for remuneration or not, or working on a voluntary basis or otherwise, whether the terms of employment are express or implied and includes a co-worker, a contract worker, probationer, trainee, intern or apprentice.

CIS’ workplace includes its offices in Delhi and Bengaluru as well as any place or medium of interaction, nationally, internationally and virtually, where the members visit in the broad context of their work, during the course of employment and/or arising out of any form of engagement with CIS. The policy will also apply to all attendees for events organised by CIS.

4. What is the limitation period for making a complaint? In other words, how soon should the aggrieved woman make the complaint?

A complaint should be made within three months from the date of incident and in case of a series of incidents, within a period of three months from the date of last incident. A complaint may be considered if it falls in the scope of the Extraordinary Situations clause of the Policy.

We urge aggrieved women to make a complaint at the earliest.

5. How can an aggrieved woman make a complaint? Can another person file a complaint on behalf of the aggrieved woman?

An aggrieved woman may prefer a complaint, in writing, to the IC at ic.cisindia[at]protonmail[dot]com, or any member of the current IC (details given below).

Where the aggrieved woman is unable to make a complaint on account of her physical or mental incapacity or death or otherwise, her legal heir, relative, friend, co-worker, or any woman having the knowledge of the incident may make a complaint to the IC, any member of the IC.

Name	Location	Designation	E-mail
Yesha Paul	Bengaluru	Presiding Officer	yeshapaul[at]protonmail[dot]com
Laxmi Murthy	Bengaluru	External Member	murthy.laxmi[at]gmail[dot]com
Chiara Furtado	Bengaluru	Member	chiarafurtado.cis[at]protonmail[dot]com
Yatharth	Bengaluru	Member	yatharthCIS[at]protonmail[dot]com

6. Can CIS investigate incidents of sexual harassment in the absence of a complaint?

Yes, in the absence of a complaint, the IC shall have discretionary powers to conduct an inquiry into incidents that may amount to sexual harassment after obtaining due consent from the aggrieved woman, in writing.

7. Once a complaint is made, how will the inquiry proceed?

Once a complaint is properly received, the IC shall take cognizance of the complaint at the earliest and in any case within 10 working days of receiving the complaint. Once the complaint and reply (from the accused) are received, before initiating the inquiry the IC may take steps to conciliate the complaint between the aggrieved woman and the respondent. Conciliation shall be initiated only if requested by the aggrieved woman.

If the aggrieved woman wishes to proceed with the inquiry of the complaint, the IC shall conduct a prompt, thorough and impartial inquiry. Both parties shall be given the opportunity to appear before the IC and present their case and/or submit the name of any witnesses or documentary evidence substantiating their case. The IC shall have the power to call upon any such witnesses and record their statements. The proceedings shall be conducted in such language as may be familiar to the complainant and the respondent.

The quorum for Inquiry Committee will comprise at least 3 members, including a woman member. The quorum will not be changed throughout the process, except where a reasonable case is made regarding a member’s conflict of interest.

The Inquiry Report of the IC, including its decision and recommendations, and reasons for arriving at such a decision, shall be communicated to the concerned parties and the Executive Director, in writing, at the earliest and in any case within 7 days of completion of the inquiry.

The IC will make every effort to complete its inquiry within ninety working days of a report of sexual harassment.

If the allegations against the respondent are proved to be true, the IC shall also recommend the penalties or corrective action that may be taken against him to the Executive Director.

The Executive Director shall act on the recommendation of the IC within a period of 60 days from the date of the receipt of the Inquiry Report, unless an appeal against the findings is filed within that time by either party.

8. What protection and interim relief is the aggrieved woman entitled to during the course of inquiring into a complaint?

The identities of the parties, witnesses, statements and other evidence obtained in the course of the inquiry process, recommendations of the IC, and action taken by the Executive Director will be protected as confidential material, and never published or made known to the public or the media.

The IC shall also take note of the inherent power asymmetry and/or the vulnerability of the complainant in such cases and take steps to ensure that the complainant is not subjected to a hostile environment during the inquiry.

9. Does making a complaint bar the aggrieved woman from obtaining relief under criminal law, or resorting to another legal recourse?

No.

The aggrieved woman can alternatively choose to file a criminal case under sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act and/or file a civil suit. Depending on the facts of the incident, sections 294, 354A, or 509 of the IPC may be invoked. Further a suit claiming damages on grounds of mental anguish and harassment can be filed under tort law.

CIS is legally obligated to provide assistance to the aggrieved woman in filing such complaints, should they choose to do so. The aggrieved woman shall need to approach the police, if they wish to file a criminal case.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/about/policy-on-prohibition-of-sexual-harassment-faq

IRC19 - Proposed Session - #ListInterface

sumandro — 2018-11-26T13:19:12Z

Details of a session proposed by Bharath Sivakumar, Rakshita Siva, and Deepak Prince for the Internet Researchers' Conference 2019 - #List.

Internet Researchers' Conference 2019 - #List - Call for Sessions

Session Plan

We would, as a starting point like to consider the conditions of possibility for the ‘list’ to emerge as the core thematic for this year’s Internet Researchers’ Conference. The proposal call provides several motivating questions and anchoring reasons foregrounding the list as an object for analysis and discussion. Broadly these may be divided along two lines - one pertaining to the qualities of the list (who makes it, why are they ephemeral, what makes lists this or that) and the other pointing to certain critical questions that emerge on our political landscape, with the list or practices of listing central to this politics.

Segment 1 [15 minutes]

In our session, the first item on the agenda (this also is a list!) is an outline of the way lists are thought of in 2 contexts:

Bureaucratic processing/management (lists and their relationship to documents, files in offices, and also, everyday lists such as shopping lists).
List as a technological object in networked technological systems ie the list-interface.

The late media theorist Cornelia Vismann is our guide among others, including Umberto Eco and Foucault’s notion of the ‘statement’.

Segment 2 [15 minutes x 3 => 45 minutes]

In the second part of our proceedings, we would like to consider 3 problems pertaining to the list:

‘List’ as a mode of presentation in various user-interfaces, such as the whatsapp screen and its relationship to the subjective experience of time : It's winter and you've opened the Amazon app to buy one winter jacket. You open the app on your phone and begin to search for one, only to realize you've been endlessly scrolling for the last half an hour looking for jackets without buying a single one and if your friend hadn't called you to break you out of that flow, you would have most probably continued to scroll for another half an hour. I could make a similar point about how you keep scrolling through Instagram endlessly without stopping or how you similarly keep scrolling endlessly through Netflix or YouTube videos without touching to watch a single one. A common theme that connects these interfaces is their "no dead end" feature. They are arranged in the form of “lists” keep going on without a stop, structuring the user’s experience of subjective time.
The #MeToo movement is, as the proposal call says, a few years old, but it is only with the publishing of this list that it erupts into the terrain of the political, at least within the context of academic institutions. We would like to examine the conditions that make this political emergence possible. As first pass, we will note here that the #LoSHA is a list that refuses to process (Other facebook posts for example, are read, ‘liked’ or commented on and then passed over, ie processed).
Social media platforms - sites of media exchange are organized structurally as lists. There’s a list of posts, responses to ‘posts’ are also lists and even interactive features are available as lists -“Like, Share and Subscribe” at the end of a youtube video for example. On Facebook, audiences would be asked to “Like, Comment and Share” in that order of increasing activity. In the recent past, “Likes” have been expanded further to “reacts” which gives a list of “reacts” (including emotions, example-sad), a list or sequence of sentiments which people use to register their response. Similarly, there are such structures present in the forms of lists across platforms, built into the keyboard to be able to structure our immediate response or sentiment (emoticons, stickers gifs etc). These are attempts to codify emotion or more broadly, affect. The 3rd problematique in our panel will consider the process of structuring affect in online environments through the listing of signs such as the ‘like’, the ‘react’ etc.

Segment 3 [30 minutes]

Following our presentation of these problems and modes of analytically situating ‘lists’ in everyday practices in online spaces, we will open the floor for discussion.

Session Team

Bharath Sivakumar graduated with a B.Sc (Research) degree in mathematics from Shiv Nadar University and currently works for Loonycorn where he's part of the team that creates technical courses. He has eclectic tastes ranging from mathematics to philosophy to Anthropology and feels at home in the hills. He enjoys trekking, loves performing on stage and aspires to be a stand up comedian one day.

Rakshita Siva is a researcher at IIIT Bangalore in the faculty of Digital Society. She graduated with a Mechanical engineering major and a minor in Sociology from Shiv Nadar University. Her interests relate to the digital, questions of self, interiority and the psyche. Rakshita is a singer and enjoys a good jam.

Deepak Prince is a course instructor and Phd candidate in the Department of Sociology, School of Humanities and Social sciences at SNU. His thesis research seeks to grapple with the 'explosion' of smartphones and touchscreens in practices of everyday sociality through the conceptual categories of the screen and the interface. Deepak's key research interest revolves around technics, the history and philosophy of technical objects. He also takes an interest in questions of anthropological disciplinarity, the history of ideas and political anthropology.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/raw/irc19-proposed-session-listinterface

IRC19 - Proposed Session - #EnlistingPrivacy

sumandro — 2019-01-08T09:56:31Z

Details of a session proposed by Pawan Singh and Pranjal Jain for the Internet Researchers' Conference 2019 - #List.

Internet Researchers' Conference 2019 - #List - Call for Sessions

Session Plan

This session offers a provocation to advance the conversation on privacy in India. Privacy is at once a legal right, a technological/design feature and an everyday practice of managing our social and personal lives. What do we mean when we invoke privacy in our everyday conversations? Privacy conjoins opposing impulses to engage in online public sociality and expressing a desire for limits on data sharing. We trade privacy for convenience. When we skip lengthy terms and conditions of apps, websites and other online agreements we enter into an agreement without much concern for what we are agreeing to when we tick the box at the bottom of the contract. Privacy is a right we cannot not want. As much as privacy remains a subject of, and subject to impassioned speech, it becomes a cognitive burden when we are called upon to read the privacy policies before signing up for an online service.

In this session, we invite participants to tell stories on privacy based on their life experiences. The session aims to employ the concept of a list liberally to understand how privacy continues to be on a to-do list of sorts for lawmakers, technologists and users who are constantly being informed to manage their online account settings, to constantly make certain things private and to care about privacy. Even as privacy has finally joined the list of fundamental rights in India, its meaning continues to be contested. What may be the politics of privacy at play in the circulation of the #MeToo list? Privacy itself may be spoken of as a list of values and affordances: as dignity and bodily integrity of rights subjects, as confidentiality of certain information, the integrity of data flows, self-determination and individual autonomy. The list of all things privacy will evolve with new, privacy-by-design technologies in a rapidly evolving information technology global landscape.

The objective of the session is to bring the examples of potential and actual privacy violations from our daily life in the public domain. We plan to invite three to five participants to engage in a small roundtable-format discussion on privacy and the metaphor of list. Pawan Singh (New Generation Network Fellow, Deakin University) and Pranjal Jain (Masters student of Design, Srishti School of Design) will facilitate the session. We plan to invite participants from our academic and professional networks at the International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore, NUMA co-working space and Digital Identity Research Initiative (DIRI) at the Indian School of Business (ISB).

We plan to contact interested participants through email in December 2018. In order for this roundtable-format session to be productive, we plan to invite participants from diverse backgrounds who can share their perspectives.

The intent of the session is to make a repository of examples from daily life on privacy at the intersection of online space and social life. The repository of examples can be a dynamic list that grows as participants, attendees and others add to the conversation on privacy. It may be maintained as a digital artefact or an online resource.

We are looking for participants who questions what is privacy to them and still in the process of figuring out what is privacy? We also welcome the participants who do not know what is privacy but curious to discover it.

Session Team

Pawan Singh: New Generation Network Scholar at Deakin University. Works on issues of identity, representation, privacy and the costs of social justice in India and globally. Current project on Aadhaar, data privacy and social media in India.

Pranjal Jain: Human-Centered Designer from Srishti Institute of Art, Design & Technology. Currently in the 2nd year of Master in Design and research assistant at Digital Identity Research Initiative, Indian School of Business. Believe in Ethical Data Practices. Works on designing for online privacy through speculative and critical design.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/raw/irc19-proposed-session-enlistingprivacy