Underreporting of Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace in India: An Empirical and Legal Assessment of Barriers and Recommendations

Despite the legal safeguards introduced by the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 (POSH Act) sexual harassment continues to be a largely underreported issue in Indian workplaces. This research paper critically examines the causes behind this persistent underreporting by combining doctrinal legal analysis with the empirical evidence obtained via Right To Information (RTI) queries and a proper online survey administered on 200 working professionals both men and women from various sectors across Delhi and many other states . This paper studies the legal barriers that discourage many victims from not reporting such instances and it reveals that a combination of legal inadequacies, social conditioning, institutional indifference and fear of retaliation leads to the silencing of victims. It analyzes the gaps in awareness, trust in enforcement and redressal mechanisms which are available there. The paper concludes with targeted recommendations focused on policy reform, institutional accountability and social change aimed at improving complaint mechanisms and empowering survivors to come forward and sensitization of the issue as well.