REMOTE WORK AND THE EXPANDING SCOPE OF THE POSH ACT: WORKPLACE SAFETY IN THE DIGITAL ERA

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated a transformation in the Indian workplace that has proved lasting rather than temporary. Physical offices, face-to-face supervision, and clearly defined professional boundaries have given way, across large segments of the economy, to decentralised digital arrangements in which work is performed through virtual platforms rather than shared premises. The International Labour Organization estimates that at least one in five workers worldwide worked from personal spaces during the pandemic, and has since observed that large-scale telework is likely to remain a defining feature of the modern employment market rather than a temporary aberration. India, home to one of the world's largest and fastest-digitising workforces, has been at the centre of this shift: information technology companies, banking institutions, educational establishments, and multinational corporations have all moved substantially toward hybrid employment models, drawn by reduced operational costs, improved productivity, and access to geographically diverse talent. India's Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 ("POSH Act") was enacted to secure a safe and dignified working environment for women across virtually every employment setting. At the time of its drafting, however, Parliament had little occasion to contemplate work-from-home arrangements or fully virtual offices; the statute's architecture — physical Internal Committees, in-person inquiries, documentary evidence gathered from a shared workplace — presumes a workforce that meets, at least occasionally, in the same room. This shift raises a pressing and increasingly urgent question: can a statute conceived for physical premises adequately protect employees whose entire professional life may now unfold on a screen, and whose home has, in effect, become an extension of the office?