POSH Act 2013: a plain guide for employers

If you run a company, a clinic, a school office or a small team in India, you will hear the words "POSH Act" sooner or later. This guide explains, in plain words, what the law is, who it reaches and the main things it asks of an employer. It is written for founders and HR leads who want the shape of the law before they speak to a lawyer.

Please read this as general information, not legal advice. The law can be amended and its rules add detail this page does not cover, so confirm what applies to your organization with a legal adviser.

What the POSH Act is

Its full name is the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013. It is Act No. 14 of 2013, enacted on 22 April 2013, and it sits with the Ministry of Women and Child Development. POSH, short for prevention of sexual harassment, is the name most people use for it.

The Act sets out to protect women against sexual harassment at the workplace and to give them a way to complain and have the complaint dealt with. Most of what it asks of employers follows from that: a committee to hear complaints, people who know the process exists, and a record of what happened each year.

Who it applies to

The idea of a workplace in the Act is wide. It reaches government bodies and private organizations, hospitals and nursing homes, sports venues, places an employee visits because of work, including transport the employer provides, and homes where someone is employed. So it is not limited to an office building.

The idea of an employee is wide too. The Act counts people employed on a regular, temporary, ad hoc or daily wage basis, and it also names contract workers, probationers, trainees and apprentices. The government's SHe-Box portal describes the Act as covering women in the organised and unorganised sectors, public and private, whatever their work status.

If your team is small, read the Local Committee section below. Whether your organization needs its own committee depends on how many people work there.

The Internal Committee

The Act asks every employer to set up an Internal Committee by a written order. The Act text calls it the Internal Complaints Committee, and you will see IC and ICC used for the same thing. Where an organization has offices in different places, the Act asks for a committee at each of them.

The committee is led by a presiding officer, who is a woman employed at a senior level. At least two members come from among the employees, preferably people committed to women's causes or with a background in social work or law. At least half the members must be women, and members serve for a term of up to three years.

A woman who faces harassment can make a written complaint to this committee within three months of the incident, or of the last incident if there were several. The committee can extend that by up to three months if it is satisfied that circumstances prevented her from complaining sooner, and records its reasons in writing.

The external member

One member of the Internal Committee has to come from outside the organization. The Act describes this person as someone from a non-governmental organization or association committed to the cause of women, or a person familiar with the issues around sexual harassment. The employer pays the external member's fees or allowances.

The outside member brings a view that is not tied to the company's hierarchy, which helps both the person complaining and the person complained against trust the process. If you are not sure where to find one, Leshya can help (see below).

The Local Committee

Not every workplace has its own committee. The Act asks the District Officer in each district to set up a Local Committee. It receives complaints from establishments that have not set up an Internal Committee because they have fewer than ten workers, and complaints made against the employer.

That is why ten is the number you will often hear in POSH conversations. If your headcount is close to it, or moves up and down, ask your legal adviser how the Act applies to you rather than counting on a rule of thumb.

What a POSH policy usually contains

Most organizations write down how they handle sexual harassment in a POSH policy. The Act itself asks employers to display the penal consequences of sexual harassment and the order that sets up the Internal Committee somewhere people can see them. Beyond that, the exact contents of a policy are something to settle with your legal adviser, but most policies cover a similar ground.

A typical policy states that the organization does not accept sexual harassment and who the policy covers. It explains what counts as sexual harassment, with plain examples. It names the Internal Committee members and how to reach them. It sets out how to make a complaint and what happens next, including timelines. It says how confidentiality is kept and that no one will be punished for complaining in good faith. And it says what action follows when a complaint is upheld.

A policy only helps if people know about it. Share it when people join, keep it where everyone can find it, and update it when committee members change.

Awareness and orientation

The Act asks employers to run workshops and awareness programmes at regular intervals so employees understand the law, and to run orientation programmes for the members of the Internal Committee. These are two different audiences. Employees need to know what is not acceptable and where to go. Committee members need to know how to run a fair, confidential inquiry.

Our separate guide on POSH awareness training covers what a session usually includes and who should attend, so we do not repeat it here.

The annual report

Each calendar year, the Internal Committee, or the Local Committee where that is the one handling complaints, prepares an annual report and sends it to the employer and the District Officer. The employer, in turn, includes the number of cases filed, if any, and how they were dealt with in its own annual report. Where the organization does not prepare an annual report, it tells the District Officer the number of cases instead.

The form and timing of the committee's report are set out in the rules made under the Act. Ask your legal adviser for the current format.

What happens if an employer does not comply

The Act, as published in 2013, lets an employer who fails to set up an Internal Committee, or breaks other parts of the Act, be fined up to fifty thousand rupees, with higher penalties for repeat offences. Check the current text with your legal adviser, because penalties are the kind of detail that can change.

How Leshya can help

Leshya is a place to find and book counsellors in India. For workplaces, it can also arrange two things that relate to POSH: awareness workshops for your teams, and an external member for your Internal Committee. Both come from counsellors on Leshya who tell us they run POSH workshops or take on the external member role. They describe that experience themselves and Leshya does not certify it, so ask about their background when we scope the work with you.

You start with an inquiry on the For organizations page. A person at Leshya reads it, a short call follows, and we agree the format and fee before anything starts. Workshops can be online or in person and are billed per workshop run. An external committee member is matched by Leshya after we hear what you need and is billed per month.

Working with Leshya does not by itself mean your organization meets its duties under the Act. Your legal adviser is the right person to confirm that.