Your 10-Person Startup Needs a PoSH Internal Committee. Here Is How to Set One Up
A PoSH Internal Committee becomes mandatory once a startup crosses 10 employees, including interns and contract staff. It needs a woman Presiding Officer, at least two employee members, and one external member from an NGO or with harassment-related experience, with women making up at least half the committee. Members typically serve up to three years, and the committee must file an annual report to the District Officer.
The Ten-Employee Line Most Founders Don't See Coming
Most founders track headcount for payroll, ESOPs, and maybe office space planning. Almost nobody tracks it for the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, commonly called the PoSH Act. But the moment your organisation crosses 10 employees, and this includes interns, contract staff, and consultants working from your premises, you are legally required to set up an Internal Committee. Not a policy document. Not an HR email. An actual constituted committee, with named members, that can receive and inquire into complaints.
For a ten-person startup running out of a co-working space or someone's living room, this rule usually gets missed entirely. There's no board resolution flagging it, no automatic reminder from your registrar. It just sits in the law, waiting to matter the day someone files a complaint and asks who is on your committee.
Who Actually Has to Be on It
The Act is specific about composition, and courts have been strict about employers who fudge this. Your Internal Committee needs:
A Presiding Officer, who must be a woman employed at a senior level within your organisation. If no senior woman employee is available, the Act allows nomination from another office or administrative unit of the same employer.
At least two members from among employees, chosen for their commitment to the cause of women or their experience in social work or legal knowledge.
One external member from an NGO or association working on women's issues, or someone familiar with issues relating to sexual harassment. This external presence is not optional and is one of the most commonly skipped requirements among small companies, because founders assume an all-internal panel is good enough. It isn't, and a complaint inquiry conducted without a valid external member can be challenged on that basis alone.
At least half the total committee members should be women. Most companies land at four or five members total to satisfy all of this comfortably.
Members typically serve for a term of up to three years, and the committee should be reconstituted as people leave the company, not left running with departed employees still listed on paper.
The Annual Report Nobody Remembers to File
Once your Internal Committee exists, it has a filing obligation most startups never hear about until an audit or a client due-diligence questionnaire asks for it directly. The committee must prepare an annual report and submit it to the employer and to the District Officer, generally covering the number of complaints received, disposed of, pending beyond ninety days, and the workshops or awareness programs conducted that year. Many companies also fold a summary of this into their broader annual compliance disclosures. The exact filing calendar and format can vary slightly by state, since District Officers are appointed under state rules, so it's worth confirming the precise deadline and template your local authority expects rather than assuming a fixed national date.
What Happens If You Skip It
Non-compliance isn't a theoretical risk. The Act prescribes a monetary penalty for a first default, and repeat non-compliance can lead to a higher penalty along with cancellation or non-renewal of business licenses and registrations the company holds. Beyond the direct fine, a missing Internal Committee becomes a serious liability the moment any complaint surfaces, because the absence of a proper inquiry mechanism can expose the company and its founders personally, and it is now a standard question in institutional funding due diligence and enterprise client vendor onboarding.
Why Fast-Growing Startups Walk Past This
Early teams are usually optimizing for product and runway, not statutory thresholds tucked into a 2013 labour law. By the time someone remembers PoSH, the company has often been over ten employees for months, sometimes with no policy, no committee, and no awareness training ever conducted. The fix itself isn't expensive or slow. It just needs someone to actually own it, which in most ten-person teams is nobody's job by default.
If you're unsure whether your current headcount, employee mix, or state triggers specific PoSH obligations, or you need help constituting a compliant committee and drafting the policy, Vaksy can connect you with a verified advocate on the platform who can walk through your specific situation in your own language. That conversation is usually enough to get this off your risk list for good.
Get this reviewed for your case. General guides don't know your state, your facts, or your deadline. Vaksy matches you with a verified advocate on the platform who can review your situation and draft what you need, in your own language.