A Vicious Circle in the Workplace
Context:
The tragedy at R G Kar Hospital and the revelations of sexual harassment in the Malayalam film industry highlights the ongoing lack of basic safety for women in the Indian workplace.
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- According to the latest Fortune India list of India’s 500 largest companies, none of the top 100 companies in India are led by women.
- According to a White Paper by Fortune and SPJIMR, only 1.6% of the Fortune 500 companies in India have women CEOs or managing directors.
- This figure only slightly improves to 3.2% when considering the top 1,000 companies.
- While global figures are not much better—China and the US each have about 10.4% women-led Fortune 500 companies—India lags significantly behind.
Significance of More Women in the Workplace
- Improved financial performance: Gender-diverse teams have higher sales and profits compared to male-dominated teams.
- Enhanced creativity and innovation: Women in the workplace foster creativity and innovation, leading to better solutions that outperform homogenous groups.
- Increased productivity: A study by McKinsey suggests that having a gender-diverse workforce can increase overall productivity by 25%.
- Better workplace culture: Organisations with a higher percentage of women predict more job satisfaction, organisational dedication, meaningful work, and less burnout for employees of all genders.
Challenges
- Gender biases and stereotypes: Women are more likely to be perceived based on their appearances rather than skills or talents, and have their judgement questioned more often.
- Discrimination: Women face discrimination at every stage of their careers, from hiring and promotions to compensation and delegation of responsibilities.
- Harassment: A report by Ashoka University’s Centre for Economic Data and Analysis (CEDA) found that while the number of reported harassment cases has increased since 2013-2014—indicating that more women are speaking out—resolutions to these complaints have not kept pace.
- The CEDA study revealed two key issues: many companies report zero harassment cases year after year, suggesting either a lack of mechanisms to address the issue or a very low female employee count.
- Additionally, smaller companies, particularly mid-sized and small ones, rarely report harassment cases, possibly due to inadequate reporting mechanisms or fear of retaliation.
- Part of the issue stems from many organisations failing to establish the required complaints committees under the Protection of Women against Sexual Harassment (POSH) Act of 2013.
- Underrepresentation in leadership: Despite forming 37% of the global workforce, women occupy only a negligible fraction of top positions in India.
- Lack of flexibility: Women value flexibility in where, when and how they work, but are less likely to get this compared to men.
- Intersectional challenges: Women of colour, LGBTQ+, disabled and differently abled women face even greater discrimination compared to other women in the workplace.
POSH Act
The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, commonly known as the POSH Act, is a comprehensive law in India that aims to protect women from sexual harassment in the workplace. The Act defines sexual harassment, outlines the responsibilities of employers, and provides a redressal mechanism for addressing complaints.
Key Features of the POSH Act:
Definition of Sexual Harassment: The Act defines sexual harassment to include unwelcome acts such as physical contact, sexual advances, demands for sexual favours, making sexually colored remarks, showing pornography, and any other unwelcome physical, verbal, or non-verbal conduct of a sexual nature.
Applicability: The Act applies to both the organised and unorganised sectors in India. It covers women of all ages employed in a workplace, whether in the public or private sector, whether regular, temporary, ad-hoc, or daily wage basis, whether hired directly or through an agent, whether for remuneration or working on a voluntary basis, or whether the terms of employment are express or implied.
Section 14 of the POSH Act deals with the punishment for filing false or malicious complaints of sexual harassment.
Internal Complaints Committee (ICC): Employers are required to constitute an ICC at each workplace with 10 or more employees to receive and address complaints of sexual harassment. The ICC has the powers of a civil court for gathering evidence.
Employer’s Responsibilities: Employers must undertake awareness programs, provide a safe working environment, and display information about the POSH Act at the workplace.
Complaint Mechanism: The Act lays down a procedure for filing complaints, conducting inquiries, and providing a fair opportunity to the parties involved.
Penalties: Non-compliance with the Act’s provisions can result in penalties, including fines and cancellation of business licences.
Section 11 of the POSH Act outlines the procedure for conducting an inquiry into a complaint of sexual harassment.
SHe-Box
The Ministry of Women and Child Development launched the Sexual Harassment electronic–Box (SHe-Box) in 2017, an online complaint management system to facilitate the filing of complaints related to sexual harassment at the workplace. The SHe-Box is intended to provide a single window access to every woman, irrespective of her work status, to register complaints related to sexual harassment. The SHe-Box aims to ensure the effective implementation of the POSH Act by facilitating the filing of complaints and enabling the timely disposal of cases.