Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013

• The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 came into force 10 years ago.

EVOLUTION

• Supreme Court , noting the absence of any law “enacted to provide for effective enforcement of the basic human right of gender equality” guarantee against “sexual harassment at workplaces”, laid down a set of guidelines in 1997 called Vishakha Guidelines, to fill the statutory vacuum till a law could be enacted.
• These were to be “strictly observed in all workplaces” and were binding and enforceable in law.
  • The Court drew its strength from several provisions of the Constitution including Article 15 (against discrimination on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, and place of birth) and
  • General Recommendations of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which India ratified in 1993.
• Protection of Women against Sexual Harassment at Workplace Bill was introduced in 2007.
  • It was later tabled in Parliament and went through amendments.
  • The amended Bill came into force on December 9, 2013, as the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) or PoSh Act.

ABOUT POSH

• The PoSH Act defines sexual harassment to include unwelcome acts such as physical contact and sexual advances, a demand or request for sexual favours, making sexually coloured remarks, showing pornography, and any other unwelcome physical, verbal, or non-verbal conduct of a sexual nature.
• Under the Act, an employee is defined not just in accordance with the company law.
  • All women employees, whether employed regularly, temporarily, contractually, on an ad hoc or daily wage basis, as apprentices or interns or even employed without the knowledge of the principal employer, can seek redressal to sexual harassment in the workplace.
• The law expands the definition of ‘workplace’ beyond traditional offices to include all kinds of organisations across sectors, even non-traditional workplaces and places visited by employees for work.
  • It applies to all public and private sector organisations throughout India.
• The law requires any employer with more than 10 employees to form an Internal Complaints Committee (ICC). It has to be headed by a woman, have at least two women employees, another employee, and, to pre-empt any undue pressure from senior levels, to include a third party such as an NGO worker with five years of experience, familiar with the challenges of sexual harassment.
• The Act mandates every district in the country to create a local committee (LC) to receive complaints from women working in firms with less than 10 employees and from the informal sector, including domestic workers, home-brd workers, voluntary government social workers and so on.
• Written Complaint should be filed within 3 months (extendable by 3 months) of sexual harassment incident.