What I Learnt Working As A PoSH Lawyer In The #MeToo Years

I am a labour lawyer who also specialises in PoSH work, and for the past five years, I have been training organisations and their employees to be more gender-sensitive and mindful of workplace decorum. For me, 2018, the year that saw hundreds of survivors in India stand up to be counted, bore testimony to the gaps that are still there in the conversation about sexual harassment at the workplace, gender rights and hierarchical power structures. 

Two years ago, when actor Tanushree Dutta named her colleague Nana Patekar as an alleged sexual harasser, it created a massive upset in the entertainment industry. It was followed by filmmaker Vinta Nanda accused actor Alok Nath of sexually assaulting her. Within hours, scores of women, mostly journalists, named then union minister M.J. Akbar as an alleged sexual predator. There was no stopping the tide. However big or small, recent instances or old, women started speaking about their experiences dealing with sexual harassment and abuse — a crisis in India. Now that 2020 has dawned upon us, we must ask, has one of the most empowering feminist movements of our time ebbed?  

My answer, as someone who is practising in the field of prevention of sexual harassment, is no. In fact, more than ever there is a need to address sexual harassment/ abuse, patriarchy and gender disparity. 

The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 (PoSH Law), among other things, mandates an employer to make the work environment safe for its women employees, put in a mechanism to redress instances of harassment and sensitise employees on such issues. This goes to the root of the #MeToo movement. Most of the instances we heard or read about in 2018 had happened between colleagues.  

Dutta was working on the sets of a film with Patekar when the incident allegedly happened. Vikas Bahl, the co-founder of Phantom Films, was accused of sexual harassment by a former employee. While this law was in force since 2013, companies did not take it seriously until they felt the urgent need for compliance in 2018. They were faced with the unique situation of more and more women filing complaints rather than resigning, which normally would be the solution opted by a woman a few years ago in a case of sexual harassment. I still get calls seeking advice on compliances which should have been implemented a long ago.

Sensitisation of employees, a crucial and foremost step of prevention of instances of sexual harassment, is still a work in progress. The law states in clear unequivocal terms that it is the duty of an employer to organise workshops and awareness programmes at regular intervals for sensitising the employees regarding provisions of the law but there are employers who have never done a single awareness session even once since 2013. It is only when they receive complaints of sexual harassment, do they read and understand the law fully and begin compliance by conducting awareness sessions for its employees. Interestingly, these sessions bring out the vulnerabilities of our society – we do not know our laws. 

It has been often disheartening to hear women say they did not know that the definition of ‘sexual harassment’ encompasses a wide array of experiences which they have ignored because of their lack of awareness about the law. What they suffered at the workplace could easily have been addressed with better sensitisation. It has been disheartening to hear men say condescendingly during a session that only the “free and idle” sexually harass women and they should not be made to sit through a sensitisation session because they have never sexually harassed anyone. This response is almost identical to men saying on social media platforms that #MeToo doesn’t need to be acknowledged because #NotAllMen harass.  

It is disheartening to reach an organisation and find that half the employees are missing because they didn’t feel the need to attend an awareness programme — their argument being, no such instance of sexual harassment has ever happened in their company. It is also disappointing when companies schedule a quick, one –hour session, just for the sake of compliance, on law and issue that takes hours to understand because of the wide meaning of the word ‘sexual harassment.’  

On the other hand, there have been times when after a session women have felt aware, stronger and confident to know they have means of redressal and backing of law if a colleague even touches them without their consent. It is always heart-warming to receive a word of thanks at the end of an awareness session from someone who was not aware of the law and has now decided to help out a relative who has confided in her about a similar incident at her workplace. It is always wonderful to see empathy amongst colleagues and the re-drawing of the physical boundaries of respect.  

Sensitisation of employees, a crucial and foremost step of prevention of instances of sexual harassment, is still a work in progress. The law states in clear unequivocal terms that it is the duty of an employer to organise workshops and awareness programmes at regular intervals for sensitising the employees regarding provisions of the law but there are employers who have never done a single awareness session even once since 2013. It is only when they receive complaints of sexual harassment, do they read and understand the lawfully.  

Being a part of the #Metoo movement makes me realise that, taking small steps in making men and women aware of the laws and the issue, even if sometimes faced with resistance, somewhere plants a seed of respect for boundary towards the opposite gender and hopefully one day survivors will not need a hashtag of solidarity to discuss workplace harassment.