Sexual harassment complaints increasing as women remain 20% of India Inc

While the 'silence' is breaking, formal reporting remains a path taken by a small number of female corporate employees

Nearly 30 years after India’s first landmark legal guidelines on workplace safety, reports of sexual harassment in the corporate sector are surging. Ahead of International Women’s Day on March 8, an analysis of 300 listed companies reveals that formal complaints have grown by over 970 per cent since 2013, with the technology and financial sectors accounting for the vast majority of documented cases.

 

Data from the Ashoka University Centre for Economic Data and Analysis and a Business Standard analysis of annual reports filed by 300 companies on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) show that 10,337 sexual harassment cases were registered under the POSH Act between FY14 and FY25. Reporting grew by 974 per cent, while approximately 14 per cent of all cases remain unresolved.

 

The Supreme Court issued the Vishaka Guidelines in 1997, formally recognising sexual harassment at the workplace as a violation of women’s fundamental rights. The guidelines were replaced by the POSH Act, which originated from a Bill introduced in 2007 and passed by Parliament five years later to institutionalise mechanisms for safer workplaces.

 

Data shows that 161 complaints were reported under POSH — short for Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 — in FY14. Complaints rose to 961 in FY20, fell to 586 in FY21 during Covid-19, and then increased sharply to 1,729 in FY25. About 18 per cent to 20 per cent of complaints were pending for much of this period. 

 

Under the POSH law, organisations with 10 or more employees must constitute an internal committee (IC) in their offices. Where an IC cannot be formed — due to fewer employees, a complaint against the employer, or in the informal sector — the district officer or collector must set up a local committee in districts or in blocks.

 

Tahini Bhushan, advocate and partner with Tatvika Legal, said awareness has improved over the past decade and complainants are examined by ICs rather than the HR department. “This shift, along with movements such as the 2018 #MeToo campaign, has contributed to greater awareness,” she said.

 

Of the 1,729 complaints filed by employees of 300 NSE companies in FY25, the information technology sector accounted for 33.2 per cent of cases. It was followed by financial services at 33.1 per cent. Metals and mining companies comprised 5.7 per cent of the complaints, healthcare 5.4 per cent, and aviation 4.6 per cent. 

 

Despite the rise in reporting, POSH complaints are a relatively small share in total workplace grievances. In FY24, the 300 NSE companies analysed reported 29,257 complaints across categories, of which 5.4 per cent related to sexual harassment. In FY25, out of 29,995 total complaints, POSH-related cases increased marginally to 5.8 per cent.

 

Among the 300 NSE companies in India, in FY25, most sexual harassment complaints were filed in Wipro, reporting 195 complaints, followed by Tata Consultancy Services (125 complaints) and ICICI Bank (117 complaints).

 

The share of POSH complaints relative to the number of female employees has changed over time. At IndiGo airline, the share rose from 0.2 per cent in FY19 to 0.42 per cent in FY25. At ICICI Bank, it increased from 0.24 per cent to 0.28 per cent, while at Wipro, it remained at 0.23 per cent between FY20 and FY25. 

 

Companies in South Asia are failing to adequately address workplace sexual harassment, said Human Rights Watch in a report in October 2020. After reviewing 50 audit reports of garment factories in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh between 2016 and 2018, the organisation identified several systemic shortcomings in how complaints were handled.

 

“These factory inspections are typically carried out by third-party auditors. In most of these reports, analysis of sexual harassment was either minimal or completely missing. Only one report from India made a passing reference to a legally mandated POSH committee in the workplace and did not evaluate its effectiveness,” the report said.

 

Women are underrepresented in India Inc. Of the 6.6 million employees and workers across NSE 300 companies, about 20 per cent are women. The fact that POSH complaints account for a mere 0.1 per cent of the total female workforce highlights a dual challenge: Gender imbalance in corporate employment and the limited scale of formal grievance reporting.