Women's Day: POSH Act Strong On Paper, Weak In Execution, Says Legal Expert
A significant limitation of the POSH Act is that it primarily applies within an organisation's internal ecosystem.
The Prevention of Sexual Harassment Act is a legal mandate in India, but many organisations treat it as just that rather than integrating it as a core organisational value, according to lawyer Rutuja Shinde.
"While the act itself, if you look at it in terms of a framework, it's quite exhaustive. In terms of global analysis also, it's quite exhaustive. The gap that we are seeing is in the implementation," Shinde told NDTV Profit on the eve of the International Women's Day.
Despite increased awareness about the importance of a safe workplace, many organisations still fail to comply with the act, POSH law and compliance expert DEI Consultant said.
"Even today, you may find many organisations to be non-compliant with the POSH Act. We see that many organisations are trying to skip the responsibility of fully implementing the act or practicing it in spirit," she said while discussing the effectiveness of India's POSH Act in ensuring workplace safety.
Limitations
Even when organisations implement the act, they often do not create a psychologically safe space for women to voice their concerns. "While they are implementing it in their workplaces, have they really created a psychologically safe place for women to speak out about any bad experience?" Shinde asked.
A significant limitation of the POSH Act is that it primarily applies within an organisation's internal ecosystem. However, many women face harassment while interacting with third parties — clients, customers, or external stakeholders.
"When women are interacting with third parties, when they are going out in client-facing roles, as delivery partners — unfortunately, there is not much that an organisation can do when the respondent is not from the organisation," Shinde highlighted.
"That is where organisations really need to create frameworks for how they will deal with these kinds of situations, where both the parties may not be from the organisation. They need to protect their employees when they are out there doing their work," she explained.
Possible Solutions
One of the biggest issues in implementing the POSH Act is the uncertainty complainants face in reporting external harassment cases. "We have seen many complaints come up in these scenarios where the complainant does not know whom to approach and what is going to be the organisation that will take my complaint," Shinde said.
"There are a few solutions to this. Industry bodies could be given the power and authority to institute these ICCs (internal complaints committees), like we have seen in the Malayalam film industry," she suggested.
Shinde emphasised that each industry must identify a central body responsible for handling complaints in cases where neither the complainant nor the respondent belongs to the same organisation. "Each industry needs to identify the body who will be responsible for taking responsibility for inquiring into complaints like these."
