SHe-Box lets women register and track complaints of sexual harassment at the workplace through an official government portal. For central government complaints, the published user manual sets out a route from Register Your Complaint to personal details, department information, respondent details and final submission. It generates a reference number for tracking. The underlying complaint is handled by the relevant committee under the workplace sexual harassment law, rather than decided automatically by the website.
| Question | Key point |
|---|---|
| Official portal | shebox.wcd.gov.in |
| Coverage | Organised and unorganised, public and private workplaces |
| Normal complaint period | Three months, subject to the Act's extension provision |
| Inquiry period in the Act | 90 days |
| Tracking | Keep the generated reference number |
SHe-Box complaint steps for central government workplaces
The official central government complaint manual describes the following process. It is specifically a central government guide, so private sector or other complainants should follow their own category's current instructions. The live portal returned an access error during this desk's check on 9 November 2026; the steps below come from the published manual, without any account creation or test submission by this desk.
- Open SHe-Box and choose Register Your Complaint. Read the declaration, acknowledge it and proceed.
- Choose Register Complaint rather than View Status, select the appropriate employment category and enter the preliminary harassment information.
- Complete the complainant information, including whether the application is for yourself or on another person's behalf, and verify the registered number using the OTP.
- Select the state, district and relevant ministry or department. Provide respondent information and the incident location details requested.
- Enter the complaint description, review the information and submit. Save the reference number generated for tracking.
The manual describes a six digit OTP valid for 10 minutes. Its complaint description field allows up to 500 words and asks for the date and location. It lists a maximum attachment size of 2 MB and PDF, JPEG and PNG formats. These are the published manual's limits, so confirm any changed requirements shown by the live form before preparing an upload.
The manual also explains a message saying that the workplace or Internal Committee is yet to be onboarded. In its example, this means the department is registered but the committee has not yet been registered. Keep that distinction in mind when seeking help from the department or district authorities. A missing online committee entry should not be treated as a decision about whether harassment occurred.
Who can complain and which committee handles it?
Section 2 of the 2013 workplace sexual harassment Act covers a woman of any age, whether employed or not, who alleges workplace sexual harassment. The definition of employee includes temporary workers, trainees, apprentices and workers engaged through contractors. The law also includes domestic workers, subject to its provisions for that setting.
Section 6 provides for the district Local Committee to receive complaints from establishments where an Internal Committee has not been constituted because they have fewer than ten workers, and complaints against the employer. The appropriate committee depends on the workplace and complaint. The portal is a route for registration and coordination; it does not remove these statutory responsibilities.
Harassment under the Act includes unwelcome physical contact and advances, requests for sexual favours, sexually coloured remarks, showing pornography and other unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature. The definition is broader than a physical assault. Workplace context can also include places visited during employment and transport provided by the employer for such journeys.
SHe-Box complaint deadline and inquiry timeline
Section 9 normally requires a written complaint within three months of the incident, or the last incident in a series. The committee may extend that period by up to another three months if circumstances prevented timely filing, recording its reasons in writing. That is a conditional extension, not an automatic six month deadline for every case.
The same section requires reasonable assistance with writing the complaint where the woman cannot make it in writing. Section 11 provides a 90 day inquiry period. The Act separately deals with the report and subsequent action, so the inquiry period should not be described as a promise that every stage, including an appeal, finishes within 90 days.
During an inquiry, section 12 allows the committee, on the woman's written request, to recommend measures including transfer of either party or leave for the woman for up to three months. Section 16 protects complaint and inquiry information against public disclosure. Any measures and outcome depend on the applicable process; SHe-Box does not offer a fixed cash benefit or guarantee compensation.
Tracking, support and the current official explanation
The manual distinguishes View Status from new complaint registration and tells complainants to save their reference number. Keep that acknowledgement and copies of the submitted account and supporting material securely. If access fails, seek the relevant committee's assistance promptly rather than assuming that a portal error pauses the legal complaint period.
The ministry's 17 June 2026 explanation of SHe-Box 2.0 describes committee records and state and district nodal officers as part of the system. For broader support, the official Women Helpline FAQ identifies 181 and says the service is operational outside West Bengal. Confirm local support arrangements where needed.
Readers needing legal assistance can consult the free legal aid eligibility guide. For other distinct grievance routes, see consumer complaint filing and RTI application and status rules. Those services address different problems. A workplace harassment complaint should be directed to the authority with responsibility under the 2013 Act, with the statutory deadline and any acknowledgement kept in view.
