Pooja Bajaj Chadha on battling sexual harassment at work with workshops

In the last three years, Anthony Alex, founder and CEO of Rainmaker, a Juhu-based online learning company, has helped several organizations comply with the Prevention Of Sexual Harassment law (PoSH), 2013, by training its entire workforce and management. But in the last six months, the demand has reached a crescendo, thanks to the #MeToo movement that saw powerful men from various quarters being outed for their predatory behaviour. Companies no longer want to appear tone deaf when it comes to sexual harassment complaints. "Being named in a sexual harassment allegation can be damaging for an organisation, legally as well as reputation-wise," adds Alex.

India Inc, therefore, is finding recourse in gender sensitisation workshops. The training is built on the premise that in society, women have different realities on the basis of their sex, and why it's important that workplace ethics go beyond gender. "Companies are striving to make workplaces gender sensitive, and to an extent gender neutral, where your orientation doesn't matter but what you bring to the table," he says. A graduate of National Law School, Bangalore, Alex started his career with ICICI Bank in 1998 and later moved to set up law firm Kochhar & Co’s Mumbai office.