Compliance of POSH Act difficult in IT companies, claims NCW chief
National Commission for Women chairperson Rekha Sharma recently expressed her reservations that internal committees to handle sexual harassment cases are not working up to the mark. She had also stated that as many as 30 per cent of sexual harassment cases are false. Talking to Deccan Chronicle, she elaborated on her observations.
Q. You have stated that 30 per cent of the cases of the sexual harassment are false. Why is this happening? How to tackle the trend?
A majority of instances of sexual harassment, whether at the workplace or elsewhere, happen in places or situations where evidence is difficult to come by. In a workplace, sexually coloured remarks and physical advances can be made behind closed doors, where there are no witnesses, no recordings, no video footage, and nothing but the word of victim against the word of the perpetrator. In such cases, the complaint will not be termed ‘false’ or ‘malicious’, and the respondent will not be held guilty of sexual harassment.
For a complaint to be considered false or malicious, the IC needs to specifically show that the complainant intentionally and maliciously filed a complaint that she knew to be untrue. In this manner, the law does not seek to establish a balance between the possibility of misuse and the preservation of an individual’s right to file complaints.
One of the issues that can tackle such situation perhaps is to establish different policies to redress gender related complaints and complaints of sexual harassment at workplaces. By adopting this, women may not need to have always colour of sexual harassment in complaints to redress their gender related differences.
Q. You have observed that internal committees in IT companies are not working up to the mark — Can you elaborate on this?
Though there are a number of organisations conscious about the need to adopt appropriate policies and comply with the provisions of the POSH Act, the most pressing concern I have found is the lack of training on legal knowledge among the Internal Committee (IC) members for conducting of an inquiry.
Members of IC are usually found unable to conduct inquiries or appreciate evidence and draft appropriate reports or recommendations. As is seen by the numbers, the rate of women participation in the Indian workforce is very low and only around 16 per cent of the senior level jobs in organisations are filled up by women. The absence of women in senior positions of companies has a direct effect on the implementation of the POSH Act.
Thus, the issue of gender disparity in the IT companies is one glaring hindrance, but it is not the only one. As far as the IT sector is concerned, most of these companies are mostly situated in foreign countries. Hence, it remains a challenge to approach the higher authorities for compliance of POSH Act, especially when the complaints are against the senior-most people.