Sexual harassment cases rise as India Inc resumes WFO

Cases of sexual harassment at workplaces in India increased last fiscal when an increasing number of companies began calibrated resumption of normal office routines, in lockstep with the pace of nationwide Covid vaccinations.

There was a 20% increase in the number of harassment complaints received by Nifty 50 companies in FY22 compared with the year-ago period, data from the latest available annual reports showed. However, the number of reported cases continues to be lower compared with the pre-pandemic times.

The number of cases received during FY22 rose to 562 from 466 in FY21, when cases declined as several companies across sectors adopted remote working amid a spurt in Covid cases. In FY20, the number of cases was higher at 753, showed data put together for ET by ComplyKaro, which advises companies on PoSH compliance.


Banks accounted for 40% of the cases and IT for 28%.

Data of IT services frontliners - Infosys, TCS, HCL Tech, Tech Mahindra and Wipro - where majority of the workforce was functioning remotely until recently, showed that the total number of cases continued to be 50% lower in FY22 versus the pre-Covid period. In FY21, the decline was 63% with most offices shut through the year.

Sectors such as banking services and manufacturing, where more people are working from offices, have seen cases go up. Infosys, TCS, HCL Tech, Tech Mahindra, Wipro, Axis Bank and HDFC Bank did not respond to ET's queries.

PoSH experts and HR lawyers attribute the increase in the number of cases reported to increasing physical presence in offices, while some believe the convenience of reporting cases in a physical workplace compared with a virtual work set-up explains the increase in the number of complaints.