Those who seek to make work safer for women

Organisations are developing different methods to increase awareness about sexual harassment in the workplace and how it can be prevented

Soon after the ‘Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act’ came into force in 2013, several corporations across the country began looking into PoSH (Prevention of Sexual Harassment) compliant behaviour for their employees.

In recent years, organisations, mostly run by lawyers, have been conducting workshops to help corporations understand the legalities of PoSH better.

“While our modules are for women and help them say ‘no,’ we also try to get men to understand how they can help their colleagues,” says Anupamaa V, managing partner at Upceed Consulting Services (UCS).

According to Anupamaa, UCS aims to tackle unconscious biases in the workplace through gender sensitisation workshops.

“Even seven years after the PoSH Act, there are people across all levels who are still non-compliant,” she adds. Recently, UCS launched ‘RightRules,’ an online interactive platform that provides learning content for employees, managers, and the internal committee.

Organisations have increasingly taken to developing e-learning modules and conducting webinars, along with face-to-face workshops to raise awareness.

“We use webinars for employees who might be scattered across different cities or states,” says Antony Alex, CEO of Rainmaker. “While we use webinars mostly for mid-to-senior level managers, we find it best to conduct in-person workshops with blue-collar employees,” he says. These workshops are held in up to ten languages to ensure maximum engagement.

The responses to PoSH-compliant workshops are often mixed, says Pallavi Pareek, managing partner at Ungender.

“We cannot say that any specific segment of the workplace has been more accepting than the other. What is common amongst them all is curiosity. We are looking at a world of individuals who have heard of PoSH in different forums, and forms, and terminologies and all of them need answers to their questions.”

“There are times when both women and men have come to us after a workshop and said that they are now better equipped to handle certain situations. However, we do face resistance in environments where men think that the Act is against them,” Anupamaa says, adding that companies can formulate policies for men if the need arises.

The challenge, according to Antony, is explaining the various forms of harassment.

“We get questions about why someone cannot compliment a colleague in a certain way, for example. We then have to explain to them that certain behaviours are appropriate depending on an individual’s level of comfort with certain colleagues and so on,” he says.

Although PoSH compliance has been well-received, they feel there is still room for improvement.

“There needs to be a standard understanding of what it means when a company can claim to be PoSH-compliant,” says Pallavi, adding that there isn’t much clarity on this at present. “Over the years, the Companies Act has become stricter,” says Anupamaa. “However, I find that hold is missing when it comes to the PoSH Act and how it is implemented, especially in the Indian context.”

“This is serious business for us. We want to change mindsets that can change the existing corporate culture,” Antony says. The bottom line, he adds, is the need for a more respectful workplace.