POSH training India by Sutapa Sanyal, former IPS
You have a policy. You have an Internal Committee. You have a signed attendance sheet.
None of it matters on the day a complaint lands on your desk.
That is the day the questions change. Is the committee properly constituted? Is every member trained? Do employees trust it enough to use it? Will the inquiry survive a High Court? Over 161,000 workplaces are now registered on the Government’s SHe-Box portal. Courts and regulators have stopped asking whether you comply on paper. They are asking whether it works in practice.
Sutapa Sanyal makes it work. A former Director General of Police who spent her career investigating crimes against women, she knows how these cases unfold, where organisations stumble, and what separates a defensible process from a headline. Her POSH training turns the Act from a document into a working system, and gives HR leaders what they actually need: employees who know the line, managers who act early, and an Internal Committee ready for its first real case.
What employees learn during this training
Recognising harassment is the starting point. The training connects the law to everyday conduct, clear reporting routes and the responsibility to support a respectful workplace.
- Recognise sexual harassment: tell unwelcome sexual conduct apart from other workplace concerns, including in messages, online meetings and work events.
- Understand boundaries and power: why a joke, invitation or request may be unwelcome, and why seniority can make it harder to refuse.
- Respond safely as a colleague: support someone who asks for help, use the right reporting route, avoid gossip or pressure to stay silent.
- Know the complaint process: where to go, how to complain, what happens next, why confidentiality matters.
- Understand managers’ responsibilities: respond to a disclosure without blame or retaliation, and refer it through the proper process.
- Know what fairness requires: the Internal Committee’s role, each side being heard, and why an unproven complaint is not automatically a false one.
The programmes
1. POSH Workshop for All Employees. Half-day (3 hours) or a focused 90-minute session. The 2013 Act and its spirit, quid pro quo and hostile work environment, harassment in hybrid, digital and off-site settings, how to complain, protection from retaliation, and the difference between misuse and a genuine complaint.
2. POSH for Managers and Leaders. 60 to 90 minutes. Duty of care, how to handle a disclosure, avoiding retaliation, and how bias becomes harassment risk.
3. Internal Committee Capacity Building. Half-day or full day. Composition and compliance, conciliation versus formal inquiry, natural justice, evidence, report writing and proportionate action, built on Supreme Court and High Court rulings.
Explore the dedicated Internal Committee training programme.
4. POSH for Boards and CXOs. A short keynote or briefing on the difference between a compliance gap and a governance failure.
5. Custom POSH series for large and multi-location organisations, in person or online.
What happens in the room
No slide-reading. Participants work through real scenarios: the colleague who keeps asking for one more coffee, the manager’s joke one person has stopped laughing at, the obscene forward after being asked to stop, the onsite assignment with strings attached. They decide, argue and vote, then see how the law and the courts see it. Every programme is customised to your policy, industry and workforce.
Where Sutapa has delivered POSH training
- Faculty on POSH, ethics and integrity for the Indian Corporate Law Service Academy, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Manesar (September 2026)
- Gender sensitisation training for the Railway Protection Force (2024)
- POSH Act training material for a National Institute of Health and Family Welfare programme (2024)
- Release of FICCI’s report on POSH and ESG in the workplace
- Gender sensitisation and women’s safety programmes for police academies and forces across India
Questions HR leaders ask
How long does it take? Half-day for employees is standard. Shorter and longer formats are available.
Is there an Internal Committee programme? Yes, a dedicated one: Internal Committee training.
Is it only for women? No. Everyone is in the room, including men and managers.
In person or online? Both.
Can it be customised to our policy? Always.
To discuss a POSH programme for your organisation, contact Sutapa at sutapa@sutapasanyal.com.