What will it cover?

All of the below will be covered through real life scenarios, case studies, activities, latest case judgements and role plays:

Day 1: 12th October: 2:30pm to 5:30 pm

• Using the POSH law constructively to build culture of any organization to achieve respectful and equitable workplaces, discussion on intersectionality with other socio legal laws.
• Compliances under the POSH Law and responding to queries from District Officers on Annual Reports. Ensuring that organisations you belong to or advising are complying with the law regarding their policies, training session, IC constitution (across many small and big locations) and registrations of committees and filing of annual report?
• Internal committee: Constitution, Roles & Responsibilities

• Can IC members be re-nominated beyond 3 years?
• Can IC members be common for 2 different legal entities under a group in absence of senior members?
• Can IC be common for different branches, units?

• Sexual Harassment: Definition, Types

• Can IC look into complaints of sexism, flirting, friends with benefits?
• Can IC look into complaints by someone in consensual relationships?
• Can IC look into complaints of sexual harassment by people in domestic relationship?
• Grey areas of what is and what is not sexual harassment while giving feedback or simply complimenting or cracking jokes?
• Is it sexual harassment if one’s lived reality and upbringing is different from another resulting in violation of boundaries? Should the outcome of inquiry consider socio-cultural influences on people’s behaviours.
• Many more…

Being sensitive, smart and strategic while fact finding in inquiry process- Part 1

• Understanding the redressal mechanisms: Conciliation and Inquiry
• Situations that could arise during conciliations, application of role of committee as a mediator.
• Decoding Powers of Civil Court bestowed to IC , fairness and objective steps to be kept in mind.
• Role of language while conducting inquiry in light of Supreme court’s handbook on Combating Gender Stereotypes
• Ways to attitude while handling cases from or against the lgbtqia communities or persons with disabilities, keeping in line with the laws and and sensitivities pertaining to these spectrums. Do laws pertaining to them have any impact on the POSH inquiry process?

Day 2: 13th October 2023 2:30 pm to 5:30 pm

Being sensitive,smart and strategic while fact finding in inquiry process- Part 2

• Can witnesses be given protection under the POSH law, if a request is made Managing witnesses that want to remain anonymous , or turn hostile during the process.
• Checking authenticities of documents without taking help of forensics
• Handling complexities regards emotions and mindsets of parties and IC members- Affinity bias, patriarchal mindset.
• Ramifications of not completing the inquiry within 90 days
• Can IC look into complaints of sexual assault, rape and related offences. Role of IC when a police complaint is filed for the same allegations
• Can you really come to a conclusion when it’s only she said he said situations.
• What kind of action is required to be taken for what form of proven sexual harassment? Is there a formula or a method to determine action
• Documentation & Report writing:
• Collecting and storing sensitive data especially in tandem with the Data Protection Law
• Ensuring reports and inquiries by IC stand the test of court/appeal if required

Giveaways:

• Certification after an online assessments.
• Latest case judgments along with specifying its applicability.
• Do’s and Don’t’s for the IC members while conducting inquiries
• Templates for documentation and communication used during the inquiry.

All of the above will be conducted through activities, case studies, role plays and real life case scenarios with latest judgments.

Assessments will ensure in-depth learning and giveaways such as certain pertinent draft templates used for inquiries, case laws, would cement the learnings, marked through a certificate at the end of the workshop, provided to participants.

Facilitators: Advocate Sana Hakim and Psychotherapist Samriti Makkar Midha, co-founding partners of Equilibrio Advisory LLP.