What does it really take to be a workplace diversity and sexual harassment prevention expert? Pallavi tells us today

I remember hearing a lot of the following statements before I ventured into my current profession. 

“You are wasting your time and energy Pallavi. There are more important things to do in this world. Drop it.“

 “This is not a career. Take up a job and then do this in your free time. Drop it.”

I know that what I am dealing with is not related to global warming, poverty, education, rural development or cheaper energy sources for the community around. But when I see the world around me, I know this is just as important. I know I do not have a formal team sitting with me in my office to dedicatedly work with me on this. But there are thousands of individuals like me around the world working on the same issue and that is my team. I know this is not a role that can be compressed into the formal corporate titles and people around me find it very difficult to understand what I actually do. I know that I am not going to have an impact on the masses in a year or two or may be the next 10 years. But, I know that if ten people join me today in this journey, and ten people join those ten people, I will have an army of such individuals in no time.

I am a workplace diversity and sexual harassment prevention expert working with organizations to build a safe working environment. Before this, I used to focus full time on my legal education startup - iPleaders  with focus on mass legal education. Being part of the legal field, we noticed that every time a new law is passed, it raises a lot of positive emotions and is expected to be followed and implemented. However, we noticed that like with every other law, Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 came with its own set of challenges and limitations. 

While there are many reasons why implementation of this law is flawed and difficult, I chose to focus on one aspect of this problem - Even if there are professionals who are working for women rights or understand the legal dimension of this law, they are very few in number. The law requires organizations where more than 10 people work to appoint an ‘external member’. A rough estimate of workplaces where 10 or more employees work exceeds 2 million. In a country where 94% of SMEs (employing about 40% of the country's workforce) remain unregistered entities, how can an important legislation like the 2013 statute on sexual harassment passed by the government be implemented? There is an acute need for thousands of experts for any meaningful implementation of the law in the country. 

Responsibility of the external member is not limited to merely being present in the hearings and investigations but requires taking a larger role.Appointing an external member to the complaints committee is one aspect, but the rules also require organizations to undertake skill-building, capacity-building programs, orientations and workshops for the complaints committees. This requires imparting training around technical aspects of the law, adjudicative skills and decision-making procedures such as summoning, evaluation of evidence, conducting hearings, writing orders in a certain way, record-keeping, etc.

As an external member, one gets into the position of advising organization towards building a conscious and safe working place for all genders.  We have all been there where we faced discrimination or saw the other individual facing it for their gender. Building a workplace which is devoid of sexual harassment for all genders in the need of the moment. We may start thinking about it ten years down the line and do damage control. However, as an external expert member, an individual is in the position to not only recommend but also become a change advisor for organizations to get them to act on it right now and build gender neutral workplaces. I have seen organizations struggling to find someone who can help them navigate the tricky waters of this law. About 2 million workplaces need to comply with the law, and a minimum of 10,000 experts are needed to make a meaningful difference to the nation. NGOs and individuals working in this space are limited. In fact most of them are not even equipped with the right knowledge and skillets to be an advisor. The ones who are working diligently and can actually be considered “experts” are very few and cannot be available for all the organizations out there.

I have not seen this law move beyond corporate houses and extend to smaller and non-structured segments like play schools, restaurants, bus stops, railway stations. When I talk about this law with individuals working in MNCs, I end up getting a blank stare almost all the time. My interactions with smaller setups of SMEs and startups has resulted into a discussion where they do not believe consequences of non-compliance will ever be a worry to them. And yet, everyday I read at least one news or hear one conversation where someone faced a mild or extreme case of sexual harassment at workplace.

While corporates are waking up to this issue and its impact on organization’s reputation and growth, there is a lot that remains to be done. Check out this latest report published by EY on the state of compliance for this law in Indian companies at this point.

I usually get jokingly introduced as a Sexual Harassment Expert - and then people around me find it funny and laugh. I smile. I understand that this issue has not touched them yet and I hope someone reaches their workplace, the restaurants they eat in, the hotels they stay in, hospitals they ever need to visit, bus that they travel in, client’s workplace, schools that their kids go to before sexual harassment becomes an experience for them.

If you think you understand the nuances of workplaces and would like to work and design safe workplaces for people - pick a sector and focus on it. Let me make it easy - remember the last workspace you were part of? A client visit or meeting which left you uncomfortable and angry at the end of it? are you always concerned about your privacy in the changing rooms and hotel rooms ? Do you worry about your safety when you go to your parking lot? Do you completely trust that the school or college your kids are part of to have set up sufficient prevention and prohibition mechanisms with respect to sexual harassment?

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By Pallavi Pareek
The writer  is an educationist, poetess, and an advocate of building safe workplaces for all genders. In her current role, she advises and works with organizations in building harassment-free workspace for all genders. Her latest project is focusing on building an army of sensible and unbiased workplace diversity and sexual harassment prevention experts. She has played a key role in designing the recent sexual harassment prevention and workplace diversity management course which is being offered by the National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata.

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