Fifty percent of women says companies are not adopting correct procedures to redress sexual harassment complaints: Survey

A recent survey conducted among 200 women form 80 organisation in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, and Chennai concluded that nearly 50% of the women feel that their employers are not adopting the right procedures to address sexual harassment complaints. The survey was conducted by Pink Ladder, an organisation providing comprehensive career enhancement ecosystem for women professionals.

The survey also revealed that over 45 percent of women believe that their organisation’s internal complaints committee is not fully aware of their internal guidelines as well as the legal provisions. The survey pointed out that 56 percent women believe that incidents of sexual harassment at the workplaces have increased over the years, while 53 percent said they have been subject to sexual comments, gestures, jokes in their offices. Tragically, close to 30 percent of women hesitate to complain to the internal committee and over 53 percent are not sure whether to continue to work in the same place where they were subjected to such incidents.

These statistics reveal the grim state of our country that despite the “MeToo movement” and the forceful resignations made by the authorities, sexual harassment at the workplace is still unmitigated and an unresolved issue.  

Under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, companies are mandated to establish a sexual harassment complaints cell. Yet, this data proves that institutions have not exactly been fleet-footed while addressing the concerns to suppress such a horrific work culture.  In many companies, Internal Complaints Committees are created since the law mandates it. However, employees are not made aware of it. Organisations are concerned about their reputation and are afraid of what if women start making formal complaints. Therefore, they create an ICC to abide by the law but do not inform the women employees about the same. Finding no respite, women under-report abuse or find new jobs to escape abuse. We need to provide a platform for every person to be able to share their harassment experience and change the current dysfunctional state of ICCs. Companies need to ensure that such matters are investigated in a fair and judicious manner.