What Is ICC and Who Are the Members?

ICC or Internal Complaints Committee is a group of people that is mandatory to constituted in every organization with ten or more employees. This committee is provided with the rights equivalent to a court by PoSH Act and is responsible for the investigation and hearing of cases of sexual harassment in any organization. The structure of the ICC is mentioned in the PoSH Act. It consists of-

• A Chairperson/ Presiding Officer – It must be a woman employed at the senior level at the workplace and has a credible record.
• Two Members – Shall be amongst the employees preferably committed to the cause of women/ experience in social work/ have legal knowledge.
• External Member – External member could be a doctor, an Advocate, or from an NGO working for the cause of women. the external member empanelment is also mandatory for each company. the member should be well versed with the provisions of the PoSH act. It is common for corporates to hire a legal expert as an external member in ICC to help the committee over the legal complications of any case. 

The formation of an ICC is a must for all branches of corporates. All organizations must file an annual report of the cases handled throughout the year by ICC to the Ministry of Women and Child Development. Not following these norms could lead to action taken against the organization or even cancellation of their license. 

What Should be an Ideal Complaint Redressal Mechanism?

An ideal PoSH complaint redressal mechanism is a must for any organization for the time-bound disposal of PoSH complaints. The structure should include an easy medium for women to register their complaints. The ICC should maintain confidentiality in such matters during the investigation and hearing of a complaint. the investigation must be unbiased and the point of view of all parties must be considered. ICC should also ensure that the victim gets instant action for their workplace safety. this includes transferring the alleged perpetrator to a different department or branch where the victim won’t have to face the perp till the investigation is complete. A time-cap must be introduced for all complaints to ensure efficient redressal of such cases. 

How PoSH Training Helps?

• Conducting PoSH training of employees helps them to get aware of their rights under the PoSH Act. 
• This helps women to come out and report any sexual misconduct from a college or a senior in the workplace and so, ensures a safe working environment. 
• PoSH Training also enables employees to learn about fake PoSH complaints or what can be categorized as malicious complaints. This can reduce no. of false or fake complaints in the organization. 
• Proper PoSH training for management makes them aware of the process to create a robust and effective complaint redressal system. 
• It also helps the management to set up an internal complaints committee. 

How to Get PoSH Training for Employees

• Contact a Legal firm that has experts with complete knowledge of the PoSH Act and have experience in conducting training sessions for employees in prestigious organizations. 
• These firms mostly have professionals who have worked in the internal complaints committee of other organizations and can help in creating ICC in the new company. 
• The experts can easily make employees understand the most technical terms of the Act clearly with their effective communication skills. 

Conducting PoSH training sessions for employees must be made mandatory so that the employees understand the consequences of sexual misconduct and what acts constitute sexual harassment. This will help in creating a more secure and tension-free environment for women at the workplace. Companies can take help from legal firms to understand the formation of ICC and a well-structured complaint management system. Legal firms can also help companies in becoming PoSH compliant and following all the norms of the PoSH Act. 

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Do you think all cases of sexual harassment of women at the workplace are true?

Do you think the investigation of all PoSH cases should be conducted without any bias against the accused men?

Why a gender-neutral approach in the investigation is necessary to maintain the right to equality given by our constitution?

In the upcoming sections, we will try to find the answers to such questions related to gender equality’s importance and investigate the current situation of gender equality in the workplace. We will also understand the right to equality given by our constitution.

Every Indian citizen has been imparted right to equality under the constitution that protects the citizens from discrimination and issues related to gender inequality in society. However, even this right could not stop the practice of gender-based discrimination in the workplace as women were always subjected to some or other form of discriminatory practices. Sexual harassment of women in the workplace was another major issue which stopped women from joining the workforce of the country. To protect women from the harassment and unfair treatment at work, PoSH Act, 2013 (Prevention of Sexual Harassment Act) was introduced. Let us understand how it worked to empower women to realise their right to equality and bring the focus on gender equality’s importance and discussion on gender equality in the workplace.

Impact of PoSH Act on Gender Equality in the Workplace

The PoSH law seeks to empower women to fight against sexual harassment at workplace. This law has helped many women get justice over the years for sexual harassment they faced in the workplace. However, it has also become a threatening tool for some women to extort money from their organisation’s management. Fake PoSH cases are increasing day by day and internal complaints committees are finding it hard to decrease the no. of fake or malicious cases as they lead to innocent men facing humiliation from the society.

The constant increase in the malicious PoSH complaint has led some thinkers to believe that in some PoSH act has failed to serve the purpose of building a society free which adheres to the norms of right to equality. Even Delhi High Court said while dismissing a fake sexual harassment case in 2018 that women can’t be treated as “innocent gullible victims” while investigation.

However, most of the experts of the PoSH Act still believe that it is an important law to ensure a safe work environment for women. Although provisions for dealing with false cases should be made stricter, it will be an exaggeration to say that POSH law has failed to bring a positive impact or failed to induce discussion on gender equality’s importance in the society.

#MeToo and #HimToo Movement: Discussion on Right to Equality

#MeToo movement was started in 2017 in Hollywood and by the end of 2018, it gained immense momentum in India. It was a movement where working women were naming and shaming the sexual offenders they had faced in their life on social media. Most of the stories were true, and many offenders (generally high-profile men) did apologise for their behaviour in the public domain. But, like the PoSH act, this movement also gave rise to many false claims coming out on social media just for the sake of personal vendetta against the prominent personality or to gain popularity. The result, movements like #HimToo and #MenToo started running on social media to counter the #MeToo movement and false cases of sexual harassment. The rising fear among men due to these movements and PoSH compliance guidelines had again started the discussion on gender equality’s importance, the right to equality in our constitution, and gender equality in the workplace.

A General bias Against Men and the Shame Culture

The discussion of gender equalities’ importance and right to equality brought into light the society’s bias. The society’s bias against the male in such cases was prominent and somehow even the internal complaints committees of the organisations were also working or investigating cases under this social pressure of statements like “A woman can never lie about such things and if she says so…the guy must have done it.”

The social judgement and the name & shame culture has continued its rise and many innocent males have fallen victim to the humiliation caused by it. Sometimes the humiliation becomes unbearable and people tend to take the extreme decision (Case of suicide by the Genpact Senior Official is an example) under its influence.

What Can be Done?

As we saw in the previous sections that PoSH act and #MeToo movements have bought justice to women who have been wronged but unfortunately, they also led to many false complaints and revelations. Thus, what was supposed to decrease the gender inequality in our society and ensure the right to equality to every citizen has instead increased the gap and trust between the genders. Women are still afraid to speak up due to the fear of judgment from the society and men are afraid of false cases of sexual harassment against them that could label them as a sexual offender.

What we can do is to change our approach to address such cases as a society and being less judgemental about it. It could sound like an ideal scenario, but we must be less judgemental about any women filing a complaint and any men facing the charges. We should step away from making a judgement against any complainant or accused before the final resolution of the complaint. Remember the saying

“Until proven guilty, everyone is innocent in the face of law”.

On the other hand, the government and corporates should work to ensure smooth complaint redressal systems and investigation system so that no women should shy away from filing a complaint if she feels violated. Also, the approach of the investigating team should be non-prejudiced, and they should handle the investigation in a gender-neutral manner to ensure that neither the complainant nor the accused feel any injustice. The organisations should organise PoSH training and PoSH compliance sessions for employees and members of the internal complaints committee. The communication among employees to facilitate gender equality in the workplace should be encouraged so that every employee understands gender equality’s importance and the right to equality.

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