Equality and inclusion duties in India
Reviewed by Mellow Editorial Team, HR & payroll content team
Employers in India have concrete legal obligations on equality and inclusion — not vague aspirations. Several statutes impose specific duties around discrimination, harassment, accessibility and equal pay, with real consequences for non-compliance.
The core anti-discrimination statutes
India does not have a single comprehensive anti-discrimination law covering private employment. Instead, obligations are spread across several Acts.
The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 (POSH Act) is the most operationally demanding equality law for most employers. Any organisation with ten or more employees must constitute an Internal Complaints Committee (ICC). The ICC must have a presiding officer who is a woman employed at a senior level, at least two other employees, and one external member from an NGO or legal background. The employer must also conduct awareness programmes and display information about the policy in the workplace.
The Equal Remuneration Act, 1976 requires employers to pay men and women equal remuneration for the same work or work of a similar nature. It prohibits discrimination at the point of recruitment as well — employers cannot, while hiring for a role, show preference on grounds of sex when suitability is otherwise equal. Under India's four consolidated Labour Codes, which have been in force from 2025, these principles are carried forward under the Code on Wages.
The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 (RPWD Act) imposes obligations that go beyond the public sector. Private establishments are required to have an equal opportunity policy for persons with disabilities, display it on their website or in the workplace, and register it with the appropriate authority. The Act also requires employers to maintain records of employees with disabilities and to provide a barrier-free environment where reasonably practicable.
POSH compliance: what the ICC actually requires you to do
The ICC is not a paper committee. It must meet and investigate complaints within defined timelines — the inquiry must ordinarily conclude within 90 days of receiving a complaint. The committee then submits a report to the employer, who must act on the recommendations within 60 days.
Employers must file an annual report with the District Officer detailing the number of complaints received and their outcomes. Failure to constitute the ICC, or failure to file the annual report, attracts monetary penalties. A second offence can result in cancellation of a licence or registration held by the establishment.
For organisations with branch offices, an ICC is required at each location — one central committee does not cover multiple workplaces.
Disability inclusion: the equal opportunity policy
Under the RPWD Act, every private establishment with a certain number of employees must appoint a Liaison Officer responsible for facilitating the employment of persons with disabilities. The equal opportunity policy must specify the posts identified for persons with disabilities, the facilities and amenities available, and grievance redressal mechanisms.
"Barrier-free environment" under the Act covers both physical accessibility and, increasingly, digital and communication accessibility. While enforcement against private employers has been uneven, the obligation to register the policy and maintain records is straightforward and auditable.
Maternity and caregiving obligations
The Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017 extended paid maternity leave to 26 weeks for the first two children, and to 12 weeks for subsequent children or adoptive and commissioning mothers. Employers with 50 or more employees must also provide a crèche facility, either on-premises or within a prescribed distance, and allow women employees four visits per day including the rest interval.
Dismissing or reducing the wages of a woman on account of maternity is prohibited. This protection extends from the period of pregnancy through the maternity leave.
How the Labour Codes change the landscape in 2026/27
India's four Labour Codes — the Code on Wages, the Industrial Relations Code, the Code on Social Security, and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code — consolidate dozens of older Acts. In the current tax year, employers need to track how their state government has notified these Codes, since implementation varies by state.
The Code on Wages explicitly prohibits gender-based wage discrimination and applies across all scheduled employments. The Occupational Safety Code carries forward duties relating to working conditions for women and persons with disabilities, including restrictions on certain types of work and entitlements to safe conditions.
One practical implication: as definitions of "employee" and "wages" shift under the new Codes, employers should review whether their classification of contract workers or gig workers brings them within scope of these equality obligations. The Code on Social Security, for instance, extends certain social protection provisions to platform and gig workers, and equality protections may follow as enforcement matures.
Record-keeping and internal governance
Across all of these statutes, record-keeping is not optional. Employers need documented policies, registers of employees with disabilities, ICC composition records, complaint and inquiry records, and annual reports. Regulators and courts have treated the absence of documentation as evidence of non-compliance, not merely an administrative lapse.
A written inclusion policy does not itself satisfy the law — the committee structures, grievance mechanisms and annual filings are the substance of compliance, and they require active maintenance throughout the year.
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