Critical Analysis of Posh Act, 2013

 

Critical Analysis of Posh Act, 2013

Posh Act defines sexual harassment as unwelcome acts or behaviour (whether directly or by implication) namely, physical contact and advances, a demand or request for sexual favours, making sexually coloured remarks, showing pornography, any other unwelcome physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct of sexual nature. The Act also provides the circumstances under which an act may amount to sexual harassment.

The Act was undoubtedly considered to be a great step towards the protection of the working women and the first effort towards creating a safe and a decent working environment for women in the Indian society. Article 14, 15 and 21 of the Indian constitution gave a true meaning to this legislation and gave effect to the right to work with dignity and freedom. Sexual harassment is also considered as a violation of right to practice any occupation, trade or business as guaranteed under article 19 (1)(g), and this necessarily includes the right to a safe working environment, free of any sort of sexual harassment.

Talking of the key benefits of the act as per a survey conducted in 2018, a significant 77% of organizations were fully compliant with the Act. The survey revealed that the advantages of implementing the act were – 10% of the respondents believed that attrition has reduced; 45% find their workplaces safer, and 91% quote enhanced awareness about the Posh Act. These numbers are a reflection of the advantages of complying with the Act.

In addition to the Act, the Government of India has also provided the ‘Sexual Harassment Electronic Box’ (SHe-Box), which is a ‘single-window’ access to every female worker, to register complaints around sexual harassment. Complaints submitted to ‘SHe-Box’ are directly routed to the concerned authorities for further action. Female workers subjected to sexual harassment can resort to accessing the SHe-Box to record their complaints.

However, In India despite the preventive measures and laws, Sexual harassment at Workplace is still in existence on a large scale. The present study reveals that it is on spontaneous increase especially from last decade according to the reports from NCRB. It not only sabotages the work performance of a women but also leads to frustration and mental anxiety, which eventually affects her overall growth.

Having seen a critical appraisal of the Act, it is evident that the Act has surely been successful in its efforts to build a safe and dignified working environment for women, to a large extent. But, there still continue to remain several shortcomings that it faces, and these need to be rectified. It is imperative to notice that so many incidents of sexual harassment at workplaces do not get reported despite the existence of the Act, for multiple reasons.

The need of the hour, hence, is to provide clarity around handling incidents of sexual harassment based on evidence but without written complaints from complainants. Similarly, guidelines for addressing complaints that are anonymous in nature are also required. Besides, it should also mandate a centralized method of reporting complaints for better tracking within organizations.