Making POSH work: Govt institutions must lead in ensuring workplace safety

When applied to the public sphere, such as district-level public institutions, the chauvinism of Indian society considerably raises the odds against women complainants

The Supreme Court’s latest orders to all government departments and public-sector undertakings to implement sexual-harassment laws speak volumes for the institutional and political disinterest in making the workplace safe for women. It is especially reprehensible that these orders come more than 10 years after Parliament passed the landmark Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition, Redressal) Act, or POSH Act, in 2013. They follow the apex court’s statement in May last year, noting serious lapses in enforcing the Act in a case involving an appeal by a Goa University professor against sexual harassment charges by women students. At that