Nearly 44% of workplace sexual harassment cases in India occur outside physical office premises, according to new research from POSH at Work by The Legal Swan that combines an analysis of 103 complaints with survey responses from 6,353 participants.
The two studies, titled The Quiet Crisis and The Silent Gap, were released ahead of fresh compliance scrutiny by the National Commission for Women (NCW) and state governments. The official report release said that 43.69% of the complaints studied involved incidents in extended workplace settings, including offsites, business travel, hotels and after-hours gatherings. Only 31.07% of complaints were confined to physical office premises, while a further 25.24% had elements of both traditional and extended workplace settings.
The survey component revealed persistent awareness gaps. A large share of employees said they would discuss an ongoing POSH complaint with colleagues, a direct breach of the confidentiality obligations imposed by the POSH Act, and 41.14% of managers said the same. Many respondents did not recognise abusive or vulgar language as sexual harassment under the Act, per the research release.
“Attendance in a training room does not guarantee awareness, and awareness does not always translate into understanding,” said Shivangi Prasad, Founder of The Legal Swan, in the official report release. The report authors, including Adv. Divya R and Adv. Sidra Javed, analysed complaints handled by The Legal Swan in 2025 and surveyed employees, students, managers, Internal Committee members and trainers across India.
The findings land at a time when POSH disclosures by listed companies have been growing, with POSH complaints at Nifty 50 firms rising 4.6% in FY26 and sectoral concentration documented in BFSI and IT services. The Prevention of Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, 2013 already defines “workplace” to include any place visited by an employee arising out of or during the course of employment. The new data strengthens the case for Internal Committees, training and investigation protocols to address incidents that take place off the premises.
