INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Complaints of sexual harassment in the workplace filed by 44 Nifty companies increased marginally for the first time in three years, leading
to a debate over whether awareness has improved or such cases are being underreported.
The number of complaints reported by the 44 companies
in their latest annual reports stood at 620 in FY18, marginally higher than the 614 reported a year earlier
This comes after these cases increased 24 per cent in FY16 and 18.5 per cent in FY17.
While most industry experts agreed that sensitisation
and awareness of sexual harassment has increased, some are worried that the growth in reported complaints has slowed down too soon.
“When
you do an aggressive training regarding sexual harassment, you see an increase in number of cases,” said Sonal Mattoo, an independent
advocate working in the field of sexual harassment in companies
“After five years of the enforcement of law, we should still see a healthy spurt in number of cases reported
I don’t think many companies are reporting them.”
However, some HR professionals had a different view on the matter.
“It is not 10-15
years ago when companies could suppress incidents of sexual harassment and ask the female employee to leave,” said the HR head of a
financial services company
“Now there is a law in place with stipulations and procedures to be followed in case of a harassment complaint.”
“The sensitivity
towards prevention of sexual harassment (POSH) related issues has increased in large companies,” said Lohit Bhatia, CEO of the staffing
division of Quess Corp.
Fears among victims that they would lose their jobs or be punished have abated as “people are facing the
consequences of their misdemeanours,” Bhatia said.
According to Bhatia, the efforts of freelance consultants and NGOs in spreading the
message have paid off and their results are showing.
“The number of cases has stabilised as the understanding of the law has increased and
people have become sensitised,” said BS Smita, who manages the Careworks Foundation and is a member of the internal complaints committee
in companies.
Gender diversity – the proportion of women in the workforce – also plays a role
IT, banking financial services companies – the leading employers of women – accounted for 83 per cent of the 620 cases reported last
year and some have seen a steady increase in the complaints (see table).
On the other hand, eight of the 44 companies that reported having
received no complaints in any of the past four years are also those with the poorest gender diversity ratio – less than 10 per cent
compared with 24 per cent for the average Indian workforce
This indicates that women are empowered to complain if they find strength in numbers.
“The kind of support that is needed to complain is
not prevalent in traditional manufacturing companies that anyway have a low number of women employees,” said Agamjeet Dang, managing
partner of Executive Access
“The culture of bowing down to the senior people makes it difficult for women employees to complain.”
Either way, some companies may
find themselves in a quandary on this aspect.
“Companies in India go through this moral dilemma of whether to appreciate if there are no
sexual harassment complaints or whether it is to be considered a sign of not enough women feeling empowered to complain,” said Vishal
Kedia, founder of ComplyKaro Services
“Where companies have done sensitisation, we have seen an uptick in the number of complaints.”
Regulatory compliance with the POSH
policy has been on the rise
Under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, private and public companies must set
up committees for women who believe they have been harassed.
“We may see a shift in the data once this policy of reporting is expanded to
all companies,” said Bhatia
“The minute the POSH policy goes across the board, there will be spike in the number of cases for the initial years before the growth in
number of complaints slows down again.”
India now requires the board report of every company to include, among other things, a statement
that it has complied with provisions related to setting up an internal complaints committee under the Sexual Harassment of Women at
