MUMBAI: The #MeToo movement has resulted in a sudden surge in the number of organisations rushing to firms providing training solutions for sensitising the workforce and internal complaints committee ICC ) members to be fully compliant with the law on Prevention of Sexual Harassment at the Workplace ( POSH ).Companies hastening to download material on the law and training modules in the last few days actually crashed the website of one such training solutions provider, Rainmaker.Antony Alex CEO, Rainmaker, said: “We had built a robust website that could handle a large volume of traffic. However, over the last few days, the volumes dramatically spiked and many thousands of people were constantly trying to download free materials and posters on POSH, which we had created to sensitise and train employees as well as ICC members. Our website couldn’t handle the load and it crashed, for the first time since we started this business. Our IT team worked overnight to get it up and running.”(The number of cases of sexual harassment being reported by 44 Nifty companies — a mandatory requirement in their annual reports — has gone up by over 48% in the last four years.)A four-year-old firm, Rainmaker has seen a near 200% spike in the number of queries it has received over the last one week. The firm expects to clock a 250% jump in turnover this fiscal and the #MeToo movement would have a major part to play.Cohere Consultants, a specialist in this field, is also seeing the number of queries growing by the day. Devika Singh, Cohere’s lead legal consultant & NGO founder, said sexual harassment inquiries and litigation are a great business opportunity. She said she has been receiving a lot of enquiries from lawyers who want to start of in this field.“Right now with #MeToo, most companies have gone into a panic mode. There is a rush for trainings for employees on POSH,” said Singh, while adding that in dealing with sexual harassment cases, what’s required is empathetic listening to make the woman comfortable. “Such cases are not just a matter of documentation and legal processes. It’s largely about handling a person in trauma and two people who are in conflict in a system that may not be supportive in subtle ways due to deeply entrenched patriarchy,” said Singh, who holds training sessions for lawyers and ICC members on empathetic listening.Complykaro Services founder and director Vishal Kedia said companies are reaching out to understand whether aggrieved women can make such complaints after several years and want to know the legal implications of non-compliance.Over the last few days, small- and mid-sized companies have approached Rainmaker to set their house in order by training their ICC. “Some of the companies who earlier ignored our pitches are returning calls and are keen on conducting workshops for ICC members and sensitising their workforce,” said Alex, who has also taken on some clients free of charge to create awareness.Singh said although there are limitations in the law that gives an outer period of 6 months within which a complaint needs to be lodged with the ICC, companies are asking whether anything can be done morally to help the woman.Out of the 1,000-plus cases that Cohere Consultants has handled, Singh said complaints are the last resort as women make attempts to first ignore such behaviour, then avoid it, then compromise with it or try to fix it in indirect ways. “In 70% of the cases, the complainants’ ask is not that the harasser be removed from employment. In fact, most victims are so concerned of further violence in the form of acid attacks and other hostility and retaliation not only from the harasser but also colleagues, that this is their least preferred option. The majority just asks that the harasser be made to understand that what he has done is wrong, that it not happen again with them and that the harasser not repeat it with any other women. It is only when that does not work that they look at complaining to the ICC. This happens In 29% of the cases, which is a growing segment,” said Singh.The balance 1% of cases may be false cases. But, Singh said these get magnified beyond reason, creating several biases. “I recently got a briefing on a case from the HR of a company, telling me even before an investigation has been done that this appears to be a false case. What has led to the perception is that the case has come after the performance evaluation process. A drop in performance of a person who is being sexually harassed at the workplace is but natural. It’s a traumatic situation. In Australia, there is a discussion whether sexual harassment should be treated as a public health issue,” said Singh.In most organisations, the line manager is usually the first person of contact for an aggrieved woman to go for redressal. However, training is usually not provided to managers on handling such sensitive issues. Finally, it depends on the maturity and discretion of the manager on how to handle such cases. “Unfortunately, we concentrate on training women employees to speak up but we don’t train managers to listen without judgment — empathetically and sensitively. As an extension of the employer, it is a managers’ responsibility to bring such issues to the notice of the concerned ICC. However, most managers shift this onus onto the aggrieved woman and even take comfort if it’s a verbal complaint by the woman employee who usually is not in the frame of mind to file a formal complaint or is very hesitant to. When a manager comes up with half-hearted solutions, it demotivates and isolates the complainant whose resentment builds up not only against the harasser but also the manager and hence the company itself and eventually she may take to social media to vent out,” said Singh.