Yes. The POSH Act, 2013 places specific responsibilities on employers to prevent and address sexual harassment at the workplace.
Under Section 19, employers must organise workshops and awareness programmes at regular intervals to sensitise employees about the Act. They must also provide orientation programmes for Internal Committee (IC) members.
The POSH Rules, 2013 go further, requiring employers to conduct employee awareness programmes, orientation programmes for IC members, and capacity-building and skill-building programmes for IC members.
POSH training should therefore not be viewed merely as an optional HR initiative. It forms an important part of an organisation’s statutory compliance framework.
That said, employee awareness training and specialised IC training serve different purposes. Employees need to understand workplace conduct, reporting mechanisms and their rights. IC members require deeper training on complaints, inquiry procedure, confidentiality, evidence and their statutory responsibilities.
For organisations, regular, practical and well-documented POSH training strengthens both compliance and workplace awareness. You can read more about what IC training should cover, or about POSH training for organisations.
This article is for general information and does not constitute legal advice.
Legislation referred to
- The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 (No. 14 of 2013) — in particular Section 19.
- The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Rules, 2013.