Does a company need a POSH committee if it has fewer than 10 employees?

A company with fewer than 10 employees is not required to constitute an Internal Committee under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, since that obligation applies to workplaces with 10 or more employees. However, the protections of the law are not lost: complaints from smaller workplaces are handled by the Local Committee constituted at the district level.

So while a small employer need not form an internal committee, employees still have a route to redress through the Local Committee, and the employer remains responsible for providing a safe workplace and cooperating with any inquiry. Once a workplace reaches 10 or more employees, constituting a compliant Internal Committee becomes mandatory, so growing companies should plan for it as they approach that headcount.