Inadequate compliance of the PoSH law, poor data collection, cultural biases, and fresh challenges in tackling sexual harassment posed by the pandemic indicate that employers still have a long way to go toward safeguarding the female workforce
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Janhavi was first harassed by her superior at work in late 2019, three months into her job at the India office of a reputed global non-profit organisation.
He repeatedly used sexually coloured remarks during his conversations with her, and made jokes casting aspersions on her character in front of her colleagues. Even though the company has more than 100 people working in India, there was close to no formal recourse available to register a complaint. “The India head was supportive, but simply changed my reporting structure, and I just didn’t know what options were available to me to address this issue,” says Janhavi (name changed), a researcher in her late 20s.
When the India head and the concerned human resources representative left the company, Janhavi’s reporting structure changed again. The harassment continued, even through the lockdown and the pandemic. “While he was careful not to leave email or text trails as we worked from home, he spread rumours that he has had to repeatedly reject my advances, and asked juniors and colleagues to not communicate or collaborate with me. I felt alone and isolated. He also constantly criticised and insulted me with respect to my work,” says Janhavi, who continues to work with the company since her efforts to switch to other career options in the last one year did not materialise. “Taking this up with the global head office also didn’t help because he has a lot of power within the organisation and in the industry.”
While her company finally did set up an internal committee (IC) in accordance with the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, commonly referred to as the Prevention of Sexual Harassment (PoSH) Act, for Janhavi it seems too little, too late. At the time of writing the story, she is contemplating approaching the women and child development ministry’s complaint portal to register her grievance.
Harassment in the time of Covid-19