A Professional Workspace for Women Professionals in India

There is an urgent need for better systems of professionalism and safety at workplace in the Indian corporate sector which will encourage consistent and increasing participation and engagement of women at work.

The Government of India, has taken some serious policy measures to safeguard female employees from an environment of an unprofessional and uncomfortable workplace. By creating the PoSH law, the government has taken a big step towards an ideal workplace. This law mandates the employer to create an Internal Complaints Committee for a workplace with 10 or more employees. This provision in itself puts a caution in the minds of all the employees that that the female employees have a legitimate place to file a complaint immediately whenever they feel attacked or an inappropriate sexual advance is made. The PoSH Act also makes it compulsory for the manager and the employees to undertake PoSH Training, which helps everyone acclimatize well with a gender neutral and a safer environment where everyone needs to be aware of their rights and duties.

With a penalty of Rs. 50, 000 on the manager, if there is a breach of the law or absence of a proper Internal Complaints Committee in the workplace, the PoSH Act makes it difficult for potential misbehaviour or inappropriate sexual advances to happen.

However, with the barrage of MeToo cases in the last few years shows how much work is still needed to make a safer workplace for women in India. Especially the corporate sector needs to ramp up their efforts and initiatives to retain their female workforce and create a more encouraging work environment for prospective women employees.

The systems that a workplace or management or the corporate sector employs on site, not only improves the day to day professional life of a working woman but also gives them a huge encouragement to continue with their professional journey which eventually contributes to the development of the company, the country and the society. Instead of shaming working women for their dressing, more focus should be put into nipping the source of harassment in the bud.

The atmosphere at a workplace should be completely sterile of any inappropriate advances sexual or otherwise. Any such incident in one workplace basically translates into an overwhelming sense of caution which discourage women to step into the corporate sector.

The lack of a bold and effective system at workplace which not only protects female employees but prevent any such incidents to happen, has made it imperative for the government to step in and make direct policy measures which safeguard female employees.

At the end of the day, every section of our society, our family, our teachers, our government and the corporate sector needs to realise the effect of an underlying feeling of insecurity that the female workforce faces. It affects not only a woman’s career but impacts the whole economy as a whole.

Therefore, everyone needs to step up their initiatives to create a safer and more professional workspace for the women workforce.