This alarming statistics raises the question that needs immediate attention -‘Why don’t victims report it’?
While there could be several reasons both social and personal for victims not to report harassments, one of the primary reasons is – the ‘lack of awareness among the employees about the PoSH Act 2013 and the redressal mechanisms availble under it’, which means that most of the female employees are either not aware or there is less or no role played by the organization to educate and train them to understand their legal rights under the PoSH Act.
So how do organizations big and small ensure a safe workplace for women in compliance with the PoSH Act ?
1. Regular or frequent online POSH training of the employees makes them aware and thus helps to instill the confidence among the women employees to understand their rights and speak up or report such incidents.
2. As mandated by law, an organization with a minimum of 10 employees must ensure that every employee is trained on the PoSH Act. This helps in creating awareness among all the employees including the male colleagues on topics like – what constitutes sexual harassment etc. This helps in building a culture of the safe working environment within the organization.
3. Conduct periodic Q&A sessions, open forums as well as make the employees access online POSH training etc in the workplaces to create awareness about the PoSH Act and the legal rights available under it. These sessions can be presided over by IC members or any senior members who are well aware of the Act. Such forums help in answering various questions like-
•Where to complain and what are the process involved in it?
•What are the redressal mechanisms available?
•Is the company allowed to share the details of the victim on public company forums?
•Can you report the case of sexual harassment without clear evidence?
There are several such questions that remain unanswered in the mind of employees. A regular classroom training which is conducted once in a year or half-yearly fails to address these queries. The female employees are reluctant and feel that they are being ‘watched’ and ‘judged’.
Another common issue is – once the training is completed, the learners have no option to replay or revisit the content, which can be easily addressed through POSH online training. The employees can learn at their time and pace by accessing the course from any devices like smartphones, tablet, desktop etc. The learners can even revisit the learning content often, watch related scenarios and examples to understand their legal rights. Hence, we at XLPro e-learning have designed an award-winning PoSH scenario-based e-learning module that delivers an engaging and interactive learning experience that helps to enhance the awareness of the employees on the PoSH Act 2013 and promotes a safe work culture
Click here to view our sample file on PoSH e-learning. Feel free to share your comments and suggestions using the comment box below.
