VMPL
New Delhi [India], August 31: POSH at Work by The Legal Swan, under the Leadership of Shivangi Prasad, Lawyer and Founder of The Legal Swan, has released two research reports on workplace sexual harassment in India, at a time when the National Commission for Women (NCW) and State Governments PAN India continue to intensify compliance audits of India Inc. The reports, drawn from an analysis of 103 workplace sexual harassment complaints and survey responses from 6,353 participants, together present the most comprehensive data-driven examination of India's POSH landscape in the current times.
As part of the Report, "The Quiet Crisis," Author Adv. Divya R analyses 103 workplace sexual harassment complaints handled by The Legal Swan in 2025, examining who files complaints, where incidents occur, nature of concerns reported, and what Internal Committee findings reveal about how the complaints landscape is evolving. "The Silent Gap," through its Author Adv. Divya R., draws on survey responses from 6,353 participants spanning employees, students, managers, IC members, and trainers, to assess the gap between awareness of the POSH Act and the ability to apply it correctly across each stakeholder group.
The survey findings point to gaps that cut across all levels of the organisation.
Nearly one in four employees (24.86%) were unaware that their organisation has a POSH Policy, despite the Act mandating its wide dissemination. A further 38.45% of employees did not recognise abusive or vulgar language at the workplace as a form of sexual harassment, a misconception with direct consequences for what is identified, reported, and acted upon.
Equally significant for the integrity of the complaints process, 54.27% of employees and 41.14% of managers stated they would discuss an ongoing POSH complaint with colleagues, a disclosure that constitutes a direct breach of the confidentiality obligations the Act imposes. 53.95% of managers believe that if direct evidence implicating a Respondent exists, they should be terminated immediately.
The complaint analysis presents a corresponding picture of how harassment manifests in practice.
Nine in ten complaints (90.20%) involved hostile work environment harassment, rather than the explicit quid pro quo scenarios most commonly associated with the law in public discourse. The location of incidents has also shifted considerably.
Only 31.07% of complaints involved incidents confined to physical office premises. A larger proportion, 43.69%, involved incidents in extended workplace settings including offsites, business travel, hotels, and after-hours gatherings, while a further 25.24% of complaints had elements of both traditional and extended workplace settings.
In 48.04% of cases, the Respondent was found guilty of sexual harassment. In 5.88% of cases, the complaints were determined to be false and malicious.
"Attendance in a training room does not guarantee awareness, and awareness does not always translate into understanding. What these two reports reveal, taken together, is that POSH compliance in India is wide but not yet deep. The true objective of this framework is not to resolve complaints after harm has already occurred, but to build workplaces where such harm is less likely to occur in the first place."
Adv. Shivangi Prasad, Founder, The Legal Swan
These findings carry particular weight at a time when active compliance scrutiny from the NCW and State Governments is bringing renewed attention to POSH implementation across India Inc. The data from both reports establishes that the primary gap is not in the existence of policies or committee structures, but in the reach, comprehension, and consistent application of the law at every level of the workforce.
Read the full Reports here.
Author: Sidra Javed, Lawyer, The Legal Swan
ABOUT POSH AT WORK BY THE LEGAL SWAN
POSH at Work is The Legal Swan's dedicated practice for the prevention, prohibition, and redressal of workplace sexual harassment. It provides all services mandated under POSH Law, 2013 including training for all stakeholders, Internal Committee support as External Members and audits, amongst other support. The Legal Swan also helps Organisations with their Workplace Culture initiatives and more. Read more about POSH at Work and The Legal Swan.
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