1. OBJECTIVE

It is our endeavor to keep our workplace at Mahindra Insurance Brokers Ltd ("Company") safe, transparent and friendly for people to work in. Understanding employees and giving them the confidence that their workplace is fair, transparent and safe has been our core philosophy. As per ‘Samvaad’, the forum for grievance redressal, the Company had adopted a policy on Prevention of Sexual Harassment till February 28, 2018 which was subsequently modified in line with the provisions of ‘The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013’.

2. APPLICABILITY OF THIS POLICY

This policy applies to:

• all personnel, who are employed with the Company including but not limited to permanent, contractual or temporary employees ("Employee");
• all personnel, who visit the Premises of the Company for any purpose, such as customers, visitors etc. ("Aggrieved Person");

3. SCOPE OF THIS POLICY

This policy would extend to all the locations of the Company. The possible locations could be:

• any of the business locations of the Company; or
• any external location visited by an Employee due to or during the course of employment with the Company, such as business locations of other organizations/entities, guest houses, hotels etc.; or
• any mode of transport provided by the Company (or a representative of the Company) to an Employee for undertaking a journey to and from the locations mentioned above.
• The definitions under this clause 3 (i) – (iii) are together referred to as "Premises".

4. DEFINITION OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT

A broad definition of sexual harassment consists of any unwelcome physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct of unnecessary, improper or unwelcome sexual nature and may include one or more of the following acts or behavior (whether directly or by implication):

• Unwelcome sexual advances, demands or requests for sexual favors, display of sexual visuals, sexual audios, pornographic or obscene material and any other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature; or
• Transmitting any message, by mail, telephone, electronic media including social networking websites etc. which is obscene, lewd, suggestive or blatantly sexual in nature; or
• Any explicit or implicit communication wherein a sexual favour or demand, whether by words or actions, is made a condition for an individual’s employment, career progress, promotion etc. thereby creating a hostile environment; or
• Sexually charged jokes or remarks and behaviour which have sexually oriented overtones; or
• Consistent pattern of unnecessary physical contact and advances, staring or targeting unreasonable attention at an individual in day to day dealings; or
• Any pervasive pattern of behaviour which makes women uncomfortable, insecure or feel humiliated or disadvantaged on the basis of gender differentiation; or
• Stalking or making repeated unnecessary/unwelcome visits to the place of residence; or
• Actual sexual assault.

This is only an indicative list of the possible acts and in no way is exhaustive in nature.

5. COMPANY APPROACH TO SEXUAL HARASSMENT ISSUES

The company views all incidents of sexual harassment seriously and follows a zero tolerance approach towards any act of sexual harassment. All acts capable of being construed as sexual harassment are prohibited. The principle followed is "innocent until proven guilty" and any complaint or report of sexual harassment will be investigated and if proved, appropriate action will be taken against the offending person. The nature and seriousness of the offence will be adjudged by the Committee (defined hereinafter) depending on several factors, including the presence of the following circumstances while the Employee and/or Aggrieved Person was being subjected to any acts of sexual harassment:

• implied or explicit promise of preferential treatment in his / her employment; or
• implied or explicit threat of detrimental treatment in his / her employment; or
• implied or explicit threat about his / her present or future employment status; or
• interferes with his / her work or creating an intimidating or offensive or hostile work environment for him / her; or
• humiliating treatment likely to affect his / her health or safety.

The circumstances enlisted above are not exhaustive. Every proven act of sexual harassment will be treated as misconduct under the service rules and appropriate action will be undertaken for such misconduct.

6. COMPLAINTS HANDLING PROCESS

The Company has established the following process to ensure that any incidence of sexual harassment is dealt with appropriately, sensitively and expeditiously, in a fair and transparent manner.

A. INTERNAL COMPLAINTS COMMITTEE FOR PREVENTION AND REDRESSAL OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT RELATED ISSUES:

The "Internal Complaints Committee" ("Committee" or "ICC") will be constituted for the Company. The Head of People Development along with the Strategic Management Council will be responsible for the formation of the Committee and ensuring that all the complaints are addressed by the Committee. The constitution of the Committee will be as per the provisions of the Act. The Company will announce the names and contact details of the members of this Committee for all the employees and display the same in places easily accessible to employees and visitors, alike. These are also brought out in Annexure I to this policy. Annexure I would be amended as and when the constitution of the Committee is amended.

The Committee will be constituted as per the following guidelines at all the locations of the Company:

It may be noted that:

• In case a senior level employee woman employee is not available, the Presiding Officer can be nominated from other Mahindra Group Company.
• It is mandatory that at least one-half of the total members of the Internal Complaints Committee so appointed be women members.

The Committee will be responsible for dealing with all complaints of sexual harassment pertaining to any Premise as per procedure prescribed under the Act. In case necessitated by circumstances like conflict of interest, unavailability of members, or sudden spike in number of complaints, the Presiding Officer of the Committee may request the appropriate authority, to reconstitute/reassign members to ensure that the investigation is carried in a fair and just manner.

Quorum:

The quorum for conducting inquiry in each complaint shall be two-third the strength of the Committee. The presence of the Presiding Officer and external member is mandatorily required for purposes of the Quorum.

Term of Office:

Each ordinary member will hold office for three years only in a Committee from the date of appointment. They will be eligible for reappointment at the discretion of the issuing authority. The Presiding Officer will hold office permanently and shall be changed only at the discretion of the issuing authority.

Recusal:

If upon receipt of a complaint or at any stage of the inquiry it is comes to light that either the complainant or respondent is related to any of the Committee member or is working in the same chain of command or has any conflict of interest in any other manner, the Presiding Officer shall select the quorum without the member having conflict of interest. In case it is not possible to do so by reason of the person in conflict being the Presiding Officer herself or the external member or the number of members in conflict being such that quorum cannot be formed, the Presiding Officer shall inform the appropriate authority, who shall then appoint suitable members for inquiring into the complaint.

Code of Conduct for ICC Members

To effectively address workplace sexual harassment complaints in a completely unbiased manner, the ICC is expected to:

• Have complete knowledge of the ‘Prevention of Sexual Harassment’ Act and Organizational Policy on Sexual Harassment
• The ICC members are expected to uphold the policy not only for execution, but also in their day to day demeanour at workplace and beyond.
• Investigate the main issues in the complaint based on the information gathered
• Treat the complainant and the accused with full respect.
• Do not pre-judge. No person is right or wrong till the inquiry is complete and a decision is taken. It should reflect in the language and words used by ICC members during and outside of the inquiry.
• Ensure both the parties are aware of the process of investigation and redressal as well as their rights and responsibilities within it.
• Ensure that interim findings before conclusion are prepared and shared with parties to enable them to make their representation.
• Prepare a comprehensive report with findings, testimonies and recommendations.
• Refrain from getting aggressive, interrupting or insisting on a graphical description of the event.
• Show empathy, respect, fairness, receptivity and complete attention towards the parties both in conduct and spirit.
• Do all such things as are necessary to ensure that all steps are taken necessary for parties, to ensure that they are given a reasonable opportunity to present their case and defend themselves so that no prejudice is caused to either of the parties.
• Accept that each member could have independent views based on the evidence. Try to come to a common convergence based on facts highlighted during the inquiry – do not influence or coerce each other to agree to a viewpoint. Any of ICC members can finally have and record a "Dissenting View" as well in the final report.
• Copies of proceeding are given to parties and acknowledgment obtained on a day to day basis.
• Abstain from discussing regarding the complaint amongst the fellow ICC Members in the presence of the Complainant or the Respondent.
• Refrain from coaching, guiding or influencing the Witnesses, the Complainant or the Respondent during or outside of the inquiry.
• Ensure that the details of the complaint are not shared with anyone in the organization or outside apart from relevant people in the hierarchy who have a direct role to play in the process.
• During a redressal process, the Complaints Committee is required to ensure confidentiality of the case, nonretaliation / intimidation by the other party and recommend interim measures as needed to conduct a fair inquiry.
• For External Member: Cannot solicit or do any business with any part of the organization (including trainings).

B. PROCESS FOR DEALING WITH INCIDENTS OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT

Any Employee or Aggrieved Person who experiences sexual harassment at the Premises must file a complaint in writing to the relevant Committee within 3 months from the date of the incident. However, this time limit may be extended by the Committee if there are substantial reasons, justifications or circumstances which have prevented the Employee or Aggrieved Person from filing this complaint. In the event of the physical or mental incapacity or death of the affected Employee or Aggrieved Person, then a complaint filed by other people as prescribed under Section 9 of the Act will be entertained. If the Committee arrives at a conclusion that the complaint is barred by time, it shall not proceed further with the complaint and shall forward the same to Mahindra Group Corporate HR for necessary inquest under the Code of Conduct.

7. Policy Review

The Company shall have a Secretariat for ensuring the fulfilment of the Company’s responsibilities under the Act and shall act as interface between the Committees and the Company. This Secretariat will be called POSH Secretariat and shall comprise Head- People Development and Presiding Officer of the ICC. The POSH Secretariat of the Company may seek assistance, as required, from the Legal Department or from the Mahindra Group HR Diversity & Inclusion team. The responsibilities of the POSH Secretariat will be to ensure the following:

• Review of this policy from time to time to ensure that the same is in line with the law of the land.
• Conduct awareness programs and create forums for dialogue to sensitize all employees about the provisions of the Act and this Policy. This could be done under the aegis of Mahindra Leadership University.
• Conduct seminars and workshops for the Committee members. This could be done under the aegis of Mahindra Leadership University
• Receive from Committee, upon conclusion of inquiry, all documents and evidence pertaining to each complaint and preserve the same in a secure manner to ensure strict confidentiality.
• Provide assistance for filing Annual Reports with respective District Officers.

Annexure I — Composition of the Internal Complaints Committee

The Internal Complaints Committee comprises the following members:

Annexure II — Contact details of reporting channels

An Employee or Aggrieved Person can lodge a complaint through the Whistle-blower reporting channels as per the table below or by contacting the Presiding Officer directly:

The Presiding Officer of the Committee can be reached by sending an email to [email protected] or by sending a letter to the below address:

Presiding Officer of the Committee for Prevention of Sexual Harassment

Mahindra Insurance Brokers Ltd.
Mahindra Towers,
Dr. G.M. Bhosale Marg
P.K. Kurne Chowk
Worli, Mumbai 400018