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POSH case reporting confined to a fraction of India Inc cos: Study
A recent analysis of 300 NSE listed companies reveals a concerning trend in reporting sexual harassment complaints under the POSH Act. Despite a rise in complaints, many companies reported zero cases, indicating possible non-compliance. Larger companies, with more resources, tended to report more cases, but size alone couldn't explain the low reporting. The findings emphasize the need for better awareness and reporting mechanisms to address workplace harassment effectively.Even as the number of complaints of sexual harassment at work has risen since the Prevention of Sexual Harassment (POSH) Act was implemented a decade ago, only a fraction of companies have been reporting complaints under the Act, a new analysis of 300 NSE listed companies spanning 11 years shows.
The majority of companies analysed have been reporting zero complaints in multiple years while some companies have not reported any numbers in annual reports despite this being mandatory, reveals the report by Ashoka University's Centre for Economic Data and Analysis.
Fourteen companies among the top 100 in the data set did not report any cases in any year since the Act came into effect in December 2013, it found.
In FY22-23, for instance, 1,160 cases of sexual harassment at the workplace were reported but these were spread across just 81 of the 300 companies. Half the cases were reported by just eight companies even as 219 companies did not report any case under the POSH Act. In 2021-22, there were 767 cases reported but again, by just 77 companies. In 2013-14, the first year of the POSH Act coming into force, the number of reported cases stood at 161, across 18 companies.
The report also found that the number of complaints has been growing faster than the number of complaints that has been resolved.
Among the reported cases, nearly all were by companies with the largest market cap while about 1-2% of cases were from mid-range companies and the small companies reported no cases in any years. The report acknowledges that it is plausible that since bigger companies have more employees, they would be likely to have more incidents of smaller harassment and may also have more resources to invest in creating the right infrastructure to comply with the Act.
However, data reveals that firm size cannot be the only explanation for the low number of cases, the report said. "Several companies listed among the top 100 have also reported zero cases, often for multiple years. In FY 2022-23, 27 companies among the top 100 reported zero cases of sexual harassment," it said. "Further, 14 of these did not report any cases in any year since the Act came into force." It was likely that several companies had not made sufficient effort to comply with the Act, it said. "The fact that many of the companies have not even made the mandatory disclosures in their annual reports for multiple years is an ample indication of that."
Implementing the POSH Act in letter and spirit is critical to enabling women’s participation in organisations, and also in cultivating safe and healthy workplaces and work cultures, the report notes. “And yet, various research studies, news and field reports have highlighted compliance on the requirements of the POSH Act remains poor.”
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