POSH Applies at 10 Employees: What Your Internal Committee Actually Needs
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The POSH Act, 2013 requires any employer with 10 or more employees to set up an Internal Committee (IC) at every office. The headcount includes everyone: permanent staff, interns, consultants, and daily-wage workers, well beyond whoever sits on formal payroll. The IC needs a Presiding Officer (a senior woman employee), at least two employee members, and one external member from an NGO or someone otherwise familiar with sexual harassment issues. That external member is mandatory. An IC without one isn't validly constituted, and it's the single most common gap we see. The IC also has to file an annual report with the District Officer. Skipping this carries a penalty of up to ₹50,000 for a first offence under Section 26.
Most founders think of POSH as something you deal with once you have an HR function. By the time you have an HR function, you've usually already crossed the headcount line where it stopped being optional.
The threshold: 10 employees, and who counts toward it
Section 4 of the POSH Act sets the trigger at 10 or more employees at any office or administrative unit. The count isn't limited to people on your formal payroll. It includes contract workers, interns, consultants, and daily-wage or ad hoc staff. A team that looks like six full-time employees and five contractors has already crossed the line, even though only six names appear on payroll.
What 'Internal Committee' actually means
An Internal Committee isn't a policy document. It's a standing body: a Presiding Officer who is a senior woman employee, at least two employee members, and an external member. At least half the committee has to be women, and each member serves a three-year term.
The external member requirement everyone forgets
This is the piece companies most often get wrong. The external member has to come from an NGO or association working on women's issues, or otherwise be familiar with sexual harassment matters. Companies routinely constitute a committee of internal staff only and call it done. Without the external member, the IC isn't validly constituted at all, which means every complaint it handles is sitting on procedurally shaky ground.
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