When the whole country was busy with the all-important MeToo movement advocate Aparajita Amar was determined to launch her startup sexual harassment law compliance SHLC

When the whole country was busy with the all-important MeToo movement, advocate Aparajita Amar was determined to launch her startup – Sexual Harassment Law Compliance (SHLC). She is determined to make workplaces safer for women and observes POSH (Prevention of Sexual Harassment).

Aparajita Amar: Founder (SHLC) is a Sexual Harassment Law Compliance Consultant, Advocate, Sexual Harassment, and Workplace Diversity, Consultant. She is the recipient of the "Exceptional Women of Excellence" award by the Women's Economic Forum in 2019. She is a certified sexual harassment and workplace diversity consultant and an advocate.

At SHLC, Aparajita and her partners provide documentation, consulting, and advisory services to organizations to assist their clients in complying with sexual harassment laws. Her team works on the preparation of anti-sexual harassment policies, sensitization and awareness sessions, and ICC capacity-building models. She plans and conducts training, sensitization, and awareness workshops for employees, supervisors, and senior management. She has also designed capacity-building and strengthening programs for the members of the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC).

Aparajita ji is a Legal Development Program (LDP) member of the Bloomberg Initiative on Global Road Safety and the “Strengthening Road Safety in India” program organized by the World Health Organization (WHO). She has participated in workshops held in Beijing and Geneva. She is a graduate of Amity Law School, Delhi, and has previously worked as a Law Researcher with Hon'ble Justice Gita Mittal at the Delhi High Court.

Aparajita ji has done extensive research on women empowerment laws. She was deposed before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Surrogacy Regulation Bill, in 2016. Aparajita ji has co-authored articles such as Emerging Laws Related to Surrogacy: 'A Justified Right for Single Parenthood, Transgender and Foreigners' published on the SCC Online Blog. She also presented a paper at the Conference on Statelessness and Citizenship organized by the Center on Statelessness and Refugee Studies Surrogacy Law. She presented a research paper in National Conference on Indian Society and Emerging Social Issues – “Need to recognize Marital Rape in India” which was published in “Contemporary India and Gender”, a book by Rajiv Gandhi National Law University. She has written articles like “Accident Information Report – Importance and Need” published on LiveLaw.

SHLC provides customized training sessions as it recognizes that every office has a different environment and requirements. For example, some offices have more sites than others and have different sensitivity requirements. The needs of a public relations agency, a call center, and an advertising agency are different and hence SHLCs offer customized solutions to each other.

Aparajita's interest in law began when she started taking political science courses in high school.

Her experience as a law researcher at the Delhi High Court prepared Aparajita to look at situations from a truly neutral perspective, read the law, understand how it is applied and keep an eye out for bias. She had personally heard about the many issues that the Sexual Harassment of Women in the Workplace Act (2013) had to do with employers, HR, and uncertainty about their role as senior management to effectively implement the POSH mechanism were introduced.

After finishing her law degree, she worked as a law researcher at the Delhi High Court, and completed a certification course on sexual harassment and workplace diversity from NUJS (National University of Juridical Sciences), Kolkata, before setting up SHLC.

There was a negative attitude towards the law among some of her family friends. This was due to the fact that some false complaints actually escalated. Which was obviously a problem. But it was not being addressed properly. The Act was there – but there was no solution.

Delhi based SHLC helps organizations to deal with false complaints and take action against such complainants. The company follows a fee-based business model. And now they aim to expand to other cities like Mumbai and Bengaluru through strategic tie-ups.

“Young Asian Legal Veterans Competition 2020” – is actually a competition that allows the students to share their skills to make a practical plan for the betterment of society. Ms. Aparajita Amar, Founder (SHLC) was the 'Guest of Honour' Sexual Harassment Legal Compliance Consultant, who not only presented a detailed account of the laws related to the need to create a safe workplace and LLS Lecture Topic – “Women's Rights and Gender Equality but shared some invaluable insights. And became the winner of YALPC 2020.