The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) of India has written to the Chief Secretary of Karnataka to take action against Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) India, an NGO, for non-compliance of the Prevention of Sexual Harassment of Women at the Workplace (PoSH) Act while dealing with a sexual harassment complaint by a former woman employee. WCS is headquartered in New York, and its India chapter is based out of Bengaluru.
The NHRC letter was sent in June to the Karnataka Chief Secretary, and details the allegations against a male employee of WCS India who was a supervisor to the complainant. While the woman complained of sexual harassment to WCS in September 2020, NHRC states in its letter that “the internal committee constituted in the matter worked in a biased manner and did not follow guidelines of the PoSH Act.” Following this, the woman, who is not an employee of WCS since May 2021, requested the NHRC’s intervention.
The NHRC took cognizance of the matter on February 25, 2021 and directed that a copy of the complaint be sent to Secretary of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, under which WCS operates; the Additional Chief Secretary of the Department of Women and Child Development and Empowerment of Differently Abled and Senior Citizens; the government of Karnataka; as well as the district magistrate of Bengaluru. Following this, the Department of Women and Child Development and Empowerment of Differently Abled and Senior Citizens submitted an inquiry report on the matter to the NHRC and found discrepancies in the internal committee (IC) of WCS India in how the matter was dealt with.
The report found that the internal committee constituted was allegedly not in compliance with section 4 of the PoSH Act. “Two employees who are members of the Internal Committee do not have any experience in social work or have legal knowledge and the external member is not familiar with the issues related to sexual harassment,” the NHRC letter states. It adds that the sexual harassment complaint was disposed of “on the pretext that the complainant does not wish to proceed further on her complaint nor did a conciliation take place as required under section 10(1) of the Act.”
Given that the matter was not resolved per sections 10 (conciliation) or 11 (inquiry into the complaint) of the PoSH Act, the woman allegedly filed another complaint on December 12, 2020 with the HR Department of WCS. This complaint was allegedly not referred to the IC, but rather, a new “grievance committee” was set up on the pretext that this was not sexual harassment. And so, the complaint was not heard as per the PoSH Act.
A third complaint was filed by the woman on March 3, 2021, the WCD Department report found, and again, was allegedly referred to a newly formed committee consisting of three men and women each, who were employees of WCS. This committee also allegedly had one woman presiding officer and a woman external member.
Pointing out this three-time change in the committee on the pretext that “the presiding officer or members who were part of the IC were retired”, the NHRC, quoting the WCD report, has said that the woman’s sexual harassment complaint was not disposed of per the PoSH Act.
The NHRC also said that the complainant has alleged repeated harassment and intimidation from management and IC of WCS India, and was “forced to resign” on May 31, 2021. She has also alleged that WCS India is compelling her to appear before the IC repeatedly. “The complainant further submits that she received the recent communication from WCS India which says that if she does not appear in front of their IC, then the 'IC shall be compelled to pass an ex-parte order as per the POSH Rule 7(5). The complainant further submits that present ICC and inquiry is set up in a prejudiced and biased manner to exonerate the Respondent,” the NHRC’s letter says.
The woman has also asked for her complaint to be handed over to the Local Complaints Committee (LCC). Every district is supposed to have an LCC to look into complaints of sexual harassment from establishments that have do not have an IC as they have less than 10 workers, or in cases where the complaint is against the employer himself.
The NHRC, noting that WCS India has failed to perform its duty to investigate the sexual harassment complaint against the woman as the ‘employer’ in accordance with the PoSH Act, said that therefore, the complaint should be heard by the LCC. It also asks the Karnataka Chief Secretary for penal action against WCS India and submit an action-taken report to the Commission in six weeks.
Vidya Athreya, who took charge as the director of WCS India in June 2021, told TNM, “We learnt of the NHRC letter from social media, and were not sent a communication from the NHRC itself. We believe we have followed the due process.”
She also said that the woman complainant resigned of her own volition in May 2021.
The accused man was allegedly let go of in December 2020, which is when his contract also ended. A source, on the condition of anonymity, told TNM that it was decided that the accused man’s contract would not be renewed after December on the basis of poor performance as well as the sexual harassment allegations against him, and this was formally recorded as well. However, he was reinstated by the management.
Initially, the woman complainant’s reporting line was changed as well, and after she complained, it was arranged for her to report to someone else, and not her alleged harasser. However, after a new grievance committee was formed, the woman was allegedly told in an online meeting that there is no merit to her complaint and she would have to report back to her alleged harasser, the source said.
Vidya confirmed that the man accused of sexual harassment is still working with WCS. When asked if it was because he was found not guilty by the IC, Vidya said that the inquiry was ongoing and reaching completion.