Book Review-Understanding Workplace Laws For Women In India

The authors have covered four areas of law namely, prevention of sexual harassment, maternity benefits, equal wages and occupational safety at factories and establishments. In each part, the book covers the law and precedents. Interestingly, the authors have consolidated state-specific occupational safety legislations and have provided a comparative table of the erstwhile legislations and the new labour codes. Each part also has sections on Frequently Asked Questions and Compliance Checklists for easy reference by organisations.

The book has done a great job in consolidating legislation applicable to women at the workplace and is quite comprehensive enough to be a single point referencer for lawyers to understand provisions on the subject. The checklists would also be useful for human resource and compliance professionals to reference. While many books have in the past covered the POSH Act, 2013, there was an absence of a single book that could comprehensively cover legislations applicable to women at the workplace. Kudos to the authors for effectively covering the legislations and precedents around the area. One of my favourite parts of the book is the FAQ section, which appears to be based on the real-life implementation of the laws. Merely going through the FAQs would be sufficient for someone to gain an overview of the laws.

It would be a recommendation to the authors to focus more on ancillary legislations for women. Along with that a coverage of the rules on the labour code, which were not released prior to the publication of the book would be useful. We hope that the authors Esha Shekhar and Neha Koshy cover these aspects in subsequent editions of this pivotal book.