Study shows employees assent gender diversity but Corporate India lags in driving POSH

Upceed Consulting Services (UCS), Bangalore based company that focuses on Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition Redressal) Act 2013 (POSH) related compliance and other programs that promote sensitized workplaces, recently conducted a survey* to understand employee-level awareness of a diverse and inclusive workplace.

As per the survey, a whopping 89% of employees believe that companies should employ transgenders and people with disabilities to make their workplaces more diverse and inclusive. This is a positive indication for corporates to start examining how and where they can recruit transgenders and people with disabilities into their workforces. Today, transgenders and people with disabilities make up less than 2% of the workforce.

On matters related to sexual harassment at workplaces, it is heartening to note that 82% of the employees understand what amounts to sexual harassment. However, there are still a lot of gaps when it comes to a comprehensive understanding of POSH. 60% of employees believe that reporting cases of sexual harassment to a senior manager is the best recourse when a female employee is harassed. Close to 50% of the employees did not know the name of the Presiding Officer of the Internal Committee in their companies and 58% of the employees confirmed that no awareness session on POSH was conducted in the year 2019. These results are surprising and show that while some companies in India may be trying to educate employees on POSH, the level of awareness in several corporates, medium and small-scale industries, organized and unorganized employment sectors leave much to be desired.

A sensitized workplace is a safe and inclusive workplace, and one of the most important aspects of this is the difference between gender and sex. Unfortunately, even in a large and cosmopolitan city like Bangalore, at least 50% of the workplace employees do not clearly understand this subtle but important difference.

Several studies have shown that a diversified, inclusive and safe workplace boost productivity, morale and mood of the employees. Corporate India has multiple initiatives for diversity and inclusion, but how seriously are the initiatives being implemented?

Anupamaa V, Managing Partner, AVRC Legal and Chief Trainer, Upceed Consulting Services said, "There is much that is being said in the corporate sector to create inclusive and safe workplaces and several well-meant initiatives are an attempt to take companies in that direction. However, achieving such parity appears to still be a distant reality. We need to look at the gaps - not at a global level, but at the grassroot level"

*The survey was conducted across employees from different organizations in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu with 200+ participants.