In the year 2013, the Government of India enacted the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, also referred to as the POSH Act. The Act holds an organization and the employer responsible for taking measures to prevent incidents of sexual harassment at the workplace. The Act also lays down several measures for organizations to be compliant to the Act.  One of them is spreading PoSH awareness to the employer and all the employees in the organization about their roles and responsibilities through a training program and similar initiatives.

“Organizing Prevention of Sexual Harassment (PoSH) training is a definitive step towards protecting the rights of women employees and ensuring gender equality at the workplace,” as also reinforced by Fr Paul, Executive Director, Caritas India (CI) in his opening remarks while setting the context of the PoSH awareness training program held on 7^th September 2021 for Caritas India staff members. He also drew parallels between the PoSH Act and the principles of Natural Justice and more closely to the Catholic Social Teachings that Caritas India is strongly built on; all of which lay emphasis on the dignity and worth of every human person that needs to be strongly internalised by all and in this instance all who work closely with Caritas India. He further elaborated that while policies are part of the legal framework essential for compliances, better employee conduct and behaviour and organizational culture, we need to look beyond the statutes and be guided by more by one’s faith and its teachings that remind us to be ultimately better human beings at our workplaces and beyond.

Ms. Prerna Chatterjee, a PoSH Consultant was the resource person for this awareness training. Basing her session largely on her hands-on experiences and work situations she actively interacted with the participants challenging them to question and reflect to set in a clearer understanding of sexual harassment in the context of the workplace, behaviour that may be construed as sexual harassment at workplace besides explaining the inception, scope, main features and interpretation of the PoSH policy including key definitions, roles and responsibilities of employer and employee, critical timelines and the role of employees as active bystanders in a PoSH scenario.

Some of the key points that were brought forth through the training program helped in unpacking that sexual harassment which is more about power and abuse of power and can be treated as employee misconduct as well as a criminal offence. While the PoSH Policy, as enacted by the GoI is pro-women, organizations are free to position their policy as gender-neutral and in line with the broader understanding of gender in today’s context. The idea of “consent” and the fact that impact always supersedes intent in the backdrop of harassment was also explored besides understanding the growing new reality of sexual harassment through the virtual platforms in the emerging virtual workplace spilling over to social media platforms in the wake of the COVID pandemic. The training also provided a keen understanding of the complaint, redressal and appeal processes under the Act.

Though the Act states the role of the Employer, the training brought home the point sharply that POSH at workplaces is a collective responsibility of the employer and employees and threw light on the potential actions an Employee can take to make workspaces a safe zone and even allow potential safe space for both the “aggrieved” and “respondent” during the course on a PoSH related inquiry.

The training session was organized by the Internal Committee (IC) of Caritas India and moderated by Ms Shimray (its Presiding Officer); she expressed her gratitude on behalf of the C.I Management and staff to Ms Prerna for facilitating a highly interactive session which kept the participants engaged and effectively bringing out the intricate nuances involved in the sexual harassment incidents and interpretation and implementation of the PoSH Policy (GoI).

Sensitizing employees on PoSH is integral to the prevention of unfortunate sexual harassment incidents and is also beneficial to any organization in multifarious ways – it empowers employees to know what is acceptable in the workplace, what constitutes sexual harassment and what does not; what steps to take in case co-workers are subjected to sexual harassment. Thereby safeguarding the organization’s reputation, promote a conducive working environment and improves employee retention and quality of workplace culture.

Moving beyond the legal binding and inspired by its values, Caritas India as led by leaders at the helm is committed to creating a working environment that PoSH and other safeguarding policies aim to promote and build. In this direction, this PoSH awareness and training program is the first in a series of similar awareness programs for the year that plans to cover all CI employees across all its locations. In total 44 persons participated.