Keeping yourself updated:

First and foremost, it is extremely important that you are aware of all that is happening on this subject, not just in India, but also in other countries, for you to be able to support employers in any manner. It’s simple, the more informed you are, the better advice you will be able to give to the employer. Because we understand how important this is for you, we provide regular legal and other updates here. By visiting this page regularly, you will not only know what the Government and the Courts in India are doing in this field, but also know the latest statistics and all that is happening around the globe. In fact, if you sign up with us, we also email you weekly updates, which helps you update yourself in less than 5 minutes!

There can be no better learning, than the learning from experience! Hence, for those of you who want further expertise on this subject, we do special sessions, meets and get together to share our experiences and learn from each other.

Requesting the employer to facilitate regular meetings of the ICC:

For those of you who are part of the ICC of organizations that have regular complaints of sexual harassment, it is not so much of the problem, as you would meet each other on a regular basis in any case. This one is important for those who are part of ICCs of the lucky organizations that do not have many complaints being reported. You may ask, “Why should the ICC meet regularly, if there have been no complaints of sexual harassment?” Well, you should meet because it is important that the ICC is aware of how complaints should be handled or how they have been handled by organizations in the past and the consequences arising from it.

The ICC members can especially take benefit of your presence, as you would be the only external member in the team with them and you would be the only one who may have experience of working as external member with some other organizations. In fact, while the other ICC members would take up the role of a committee member in addition to their other job profiles, you would be the only one who could dedicate your attention to this subject and the cause – and can actually share your experience with the other members.

Informing employers of their duty to display posters at workplace:

If you are part of organizations that have not displayed posters against sexual harassment in their workplace, you must advise them that they should – not just because the law requires them to do so but also because it is the only right thing to do. It would also show the visitors coming to such workplaces that the employer is an equal opportunity employer and does not support sexual harassment or discrimination of any kind. This can only put a good impression of the employer not just in front of customers but also vendors and peers.

If the employer does not know what to write, what to say, from where to get a poster – and finds all of this an unnecessary hazard to doing business, you can help them by asking us to make the required posters – we would do that for you! In any language, in any colour, for any industry type – and with the logo of the organization, if they want.

Requesting employers to conduct regular awareness sessions:

You should tell employers that they must conduct regular training sessions. Again, this is what the law require an employer to do. The reason, primarily, appears to be that the law is new and many are not aware of their rights as well as duties. While it is extremely important that genuine complaints of sexual harassment are addressed, it is also important to make employees aware that they must not file malicious complaints, as it not only impacts the reputation of the complainant, but also renders the enactment of such a law against sexual harassment futile. If you need workshops, training or anything else that you need help with, we are there to help you.

Ensuring that employers put the statistics on sexual harassment in the annual report and submit the statistics to the District Officer:

You must make sure that employers state – the number of complaints filed, resolved and pending and some other statistics, as required by law – in its annual report and submit the statistics to the District Officer as well. Again, this is not just important from the point of view of compliance with law, but also because this would enable the Government to collect data with respect to number of complaints and understand trends.

– Adv. Shivangi Prasad – Corporate Lawyer, External Member & Trainer, Head – Legal & Compliance, Partner POSHequili