BHUBANESWAR/BENGALURU: The current #MeToo movement has come up as a wake-up call to Corporate India. With a flurry of complaints putting a spotlight on the workplace, most of the enterprises have woken up to a more substantive approach to workplace sexual harassment.
Lately, the top 500 companies have been making disclosure of the number of complaints received and redressed by them in their annual reports, highlighting the mechanism is in place.
“We have ICC (Internal Complaints Committee) in place, which looks at all the cases and issues that come with that and disposes it in a very speedy manner. Our anti-sexual harassment policy is available to all. We do frequent campaigns and frequent education sessions to all employees and we will continue to reinforce that we have zero tolerance to any incident of sexual harassment,” Pravin Rao, COO, Infosys, said while announcing the quarterly results recently.
“At our company, we plan to send out a series of mailers and videos to employees on an ongoing basis to ensure that the employees are sensitised and can raise complaints without any fear,” says Monish Anand, founder and CEO of Bengaluru-based fintech firm, Shubh Loans.
While the organised sector has been actively nurturing a culture of telling employees right at the beginning the rules and the mechanism available for any sexual harassment issues, the campaign is yet to make a far-reaching impact on the unorganised sectors.
“Between 2015 and 2018, we haven’t got a single complaint from the unorganised sector,” said Anagha Sarpotdar, who heads the local committee in Mumbai created under the Prevention of Sexual Harassment at the Workplace Act, 2013.
“The real issue is in extended organisations, direct marketing, distribution, garment industry and the hospitality sector,” said K Ram Kumar, founder and CEO, Leadership Centre.
Notwithstanding the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act of 2013 prescribes a system for investigating and redressing complaints, most of corporate India have set up policies around sexual harassment only after the rebirth of #MeToo campaign.
Whether these companies have created a panel for namesake or if they have actively created a culture where complainants can take issues to them without intimidation remains to be seen. Also, women executives wonder if the change will be permanent once the campaign loses its current potency.