With the emergence of modern era, there has been an exemplar shift in the work environment which is clearly visible with the increase in women employees in top IT companies in India. This has not only resulted in increasing the status of the women but along with it, has increased the number of sexual harassment cases. The cases of sexual harassment, in the past years have risen by 26 percent in Nifty Fifty companies. A recent study surveying over 2,200 part-time and full-time female employees concluded that sexual harassment is sadly still very rampant in workplaces. The survey showed that about one in every three women between the ages of 18-34, has been sexually harassed at work, and 81percent of women have been verbally sexually harassed (dirty jokes, name-calling, etc.).

The numbers of cases are going up day by day basis, causing huge losses to the companies, which can’t be even measured. One needs to understand that it is not only the employees who are at the loss, there are a lot of hardships that a company has to face due to these sexual harassment cases. A single complaint can bring with itself, the company’s hard built esteem and goodwill at stake. Often it is seen that organisations risk their reputation, attrition rate, money by not taking sexual harassment seriously. After the enactment of The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, it is obligatory for the companies to disclose the data regarding the number of sexual harassment complaints. The act laid certain guidelines which are required to be fulfilled by the companies, but most of the efforts are going in vain. These obligations and guidelines are not being followed by the companies. There has been no major change on prevention of sexual harassment cases within the companies. There has been a major gap in what is enacted and what is complied.

All the efforts of the act are in the direction of ‘redressal’ of sexual harassment at workplace and ‘prevention’ is being ignored. This crucial problem requires focus to be shifted on its prevention, if a small issue is addressed and prevented at an early stage, there is a possibility that it might not convert into something big, the roots of the problem can be cut down on an initial stage. The scope of work of the HR’s of the company, under The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 has not been very wide. There is a need to train the HR’s of the companies in a novel way so that they can address it not only in the safe jacket mode but in a preventive way to address this sensitive subject on a larger picture.

A single complaint can bring with itself, the company’s hard built esteem and goodwill at stake. Often it is seen that organisations risk their reputation, attrition rate, money by not taking sexual harassment seriously

The biggest pillar of prevention is sensitization. Usually sensitization is just done for the compliance purpose, but sensitization should be done for prevention and not redressal or compliance. Sensitization is an important aspect as often it can be seen that the accused person, himself does not have the idea that his behaviour amounts to sexual harassment and there could be penal consequences which he might have to face due to the same. The responsibility of sensitization should be put upon the shoulders of the HR of a company.

An HR of a company must ensure following things:
1) Proper sensitization in a true sense of all the employees is being done and not just for compliance purpose.

2) Certain process to be laid down to hear petty complaints in a anonymous way so that employees can express their issues without making a formal complaint, this way the company’s reputation is also not at stake and a small issue is also addressed before it turns into a big issue and difficult to handle.

3) HR should be floating certain emails conversing about sexual harassment issues to keep the awareness of the topic alive in the company

4) HR needs to be vigilant and should proactively be able to identify if any sexual harassment issue is faced by a team member or if they have witnessed any such issue.

5) The HR’s should be more responsible and should encourage employees to come forward with their concerns.

The HR’s should be trained in a peculiar way so that they are able to handle the petty issues and informal complaints in a way that the reputation of the complainant, respondent and the company is not put at stake. He should be vigilant enough to assess the problem from its roots and maintain the secrecy of the matter, which is a matter of utmost concern in past few cases of sexual harassment at workplace.