The Supreme Court recently dismissed a plea to include women political workers under the ambit of PoSH Act saying that doing so would open a pandora’s box². Just a few more days back, the Apex Court dismissed NUJS’s sexual harassment complaint but directed the judgement to be made a part of the VC’s resume³.

Policy Implications

Though the PoSH Act has seen just a slightly more time than a decade, the journey (of implementation) of the issue in question (Sexual Harassment at Workplace) began with the Vishakha Guidelines back in late 20^th Century. The serious questions around its implementation and effectiveness rose with the Wrestlers’ protest⁴. In the light of the recent complaints and emerging jurisprudence, it becomes necessary for amendments to the Act and to focus on its implementation across the sectors and organizations. 

The change that has now becomes necessary is firstly on the point that only women can be complainants under the PoSH Act. With the recognition of the third gender in 2014, and decriminalization of homosexuality later on, the present times necessitate to have gender neutral definition of the complainants. 

Nextly, on the matters of implementation, the Central Government needs to step up and ensure the presence of PoSH committees in organizations across the country regardless of the work they do. This would ensure consistency in the implementation of the Act and would serve the purpose of providing a civil mechanism to the working women across the country on the issue of sexual harassment. 

Moreover, the training of PoSH Committees themselves and the general awareness within the organizations needs to be done more frequently and to have it right, the trainings could be brought under the umbrella of NLSA so as to have the uniformity and to have such trainings at regular intervals.