While the rise in cases highlights a worrying trend, it also suggests increased awareness about sexual harassment and the availability of platforms to report complaints. “It would be a mistake to assume that sexual harassment cases did not occur before this, but earlier, one wasn’t even sure what constituted sexual harassment and what remedies were available to a victim,” said Aparna Mittal, the founder of Samāna Centre for Gender, Policy and Law. IT firms and banks, which have large headcounts, typically register the largest number of sexual harassment cases. While sexual harassment cases spiked during two years of the pandemic when employees worked from home, the hybrid work system that followed has opened up a new struggle. While Prevention of Sexual Harassment (POSH) guidelines mandate that a harassment case gets resolved within 90 days, firms typically take about a month.

Source: Mint August 02, 2023 18:42 UTC