BSE 500 cos’ PoSH plaints rise 28%

Mumbai: It’s been over three years since the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, or the Prevention of Sexual Harassment (PoSH) Act, kicked in. And a large number of BSE 500 companies — 210 to be exact (42 per cent of the total) — have declared in their annual reports that they received zero complaints on sexual harassment since 2015-16.

However, according to a study by Complykaro Services, there’s been a 28 per cent increase in the total number of sexual harassment complaints (at 1,453) received by BSE 500 companies — a pointer that there’s increased PoSH awareness. In 2017-18, the total number of such complaints received by this segment of companies was 1,138.

Complykaro Services’ founder and PoSH trainer Vishal Kedia has come up with two hypotheses on why a large number of companies have revealed zero sexual harassment complaints. “Either these companies genuinely have great work cultures, or these companies may not be doing enough to create awareness about the law in letter and spirit. Hence, women employees may not be comfortable enough to come forward and register complaints.”

On the other hand, Kedia said a higher number of complaints registered by any company only indicates that women employees have the comfort level of coming forward and speaking out, irrespective of whether the said complaints are proven or not. “It appears very unlikely that a medium to large company would receive zero complaints. Complaints ought to come irrespective of whether they are proved or not,” said Kedia.

Organisations that revealed a large number of complaints — followed by a redressal of them — include some of the leading IT and financial services firms. Wipro received the maximum increase in the absolute number of complaints at 41. Complykaro Services said this indicates major awareness interventions carried out at the firm.

ICICI Bank and Infosys have shown maximum reduction in absolute numbers, by 40 and eight respectively. According to Complykaro Services, this could indicate that the work culture is improving due to greater awareness generation as women employees are empowered and others sensitised.

Infosys executive VP and head (HR) Richard Lobo said the company has a strong mechanism to deal with harassment complaints. “We have seen that over the last few years, the awareness on sexual harassment has gone up and we continue to encourage our employees to speak up through the right channels in the face of any form of harassment,” said Lobo.