Redesign the POSH law for the informal sector

In the recent assembly elections, we were once again inundated with information about how much the women’s vote had a bearing on the outcome. Indeed, in many places they seemed to have swung the election quite decisively, and schemes prioritizing their needs were seen as a major factor behind how they voted.

That said, given the entrenched violence against women and the systemic issues they face, it’s no surprise that once the election is over, it’s back to a very tough crunch for many women, especially those in the informal, such as agriculture. A study conducted by Nalini Nayak on behalf of SEWA Bharat on women in agriculture shows that apart from the physical labor of transplanting, weeding, harvesting and transporting produce, the working conditions of farmers, especially marginal farmers, are grueling . They have little or no medical care, no maternity leave, and no protection from the harsh climatic conditions in which they work. Sexual harassment is a constant for many of them.

The Sexual Harassment of Women at Work (Prevention, Prohibition and Redress) Act 2013 (POSH) in its current form only has the local committee mechanism to deal with workplace abuse for informal workers. Says Nayak, “These committees have been set up in many states, but the people in the committee know very little about the workplaces of informal workers, such as streets for street vendors, homes for domestic workers, forests for forest workers. , and so on. Therefore, they do not understand how to deal with such cases. Furthermore, the resolution mechanism is very vague as the committees cannot take any punitive action.”

It calls for a rethinking of the implementation of POSH in the informal sector. “While every department and agency laments the lack of coordination between different departments in addressing the problem, no serious effort is being made to develop a convergent plan of action and establish clear responsibilities and accountability mechanisms. There is no serious effort to center the insights and experiences of survivors,” she says.

In the case of domestic workers, where the place of work is the employer’s domicile, there are examples of workers making complaints to the local committee. In such cases, employers say the complaints are false and filed in response to actions taken against theft by the domestic worker. Such resistance ensures that workers choose to walk off the job rather than complain.

Although India is one of the few countries with a law against sexual harassment in the workplace, implementation is limited, with a possible lack of substance.

Women farm workers face severe exploitation and violence that goes unaddressed due to their fear of losing their jobs, social stigma and power dynamics that favor their landowners and male counterparts. These women work on farms they don’t own, either as part-time workers or for daily wages. Their jobs are just as demanding, but they are paid less than men.

The harassment they face often escalates to sexual violence.

Women’s groups such as SEWA Bharat have argued for a different mechanism under the POSH Act for informal workers: committees must be constituted differently, involving local social organisations. They also need to reach out to workers through surveys and interviews, rather than waiting for complaints. Further, the findings of the committees must be taken seriously and the committees should have the power to summon the perpetrator and file cases against them if found guilty. SEWA’s Renana Jhabwala adds: “Ninety percent of women working in the informal economy face violence, including sexual, at work. Although the POSH Act includes them in theory, in practice they have no protection. A strong mechanism at district and local level is needed to make jobs safe for women.”

The opinions expressed are personal