Tata Coffee employees have taken a pledge to say “IT’S NOT OK” to Sexual Harassment at the workplace and beyond, work with unity, and respect one and another

Photo Credit : Ritesh Sharma,

International Coffee Day is a day to raise awareness for the plight of the coffee growers and on this occasion, Tata Coffee Ltd, has focussed this year on alleviating some of the social ills that beset coffee plantation workers. A major focus area has been the prevention of sexual harassment of women at the workplace.

Tata Coffee’s CHRO, Priyanka Gidwani, decided to do something different this year. She brought on board Be.artsy, a social awareness enterprise, to focus the employees in the corporate office and at the plantations on prevention of sexual harassment, and to explain the avenues for redressal in a simple and practical fashion.

1176 Tata Coffee employees have taken a pledge to say “IT’S NOT OK” to Sexual Harassment at the workplace and beyond, work with unity, and respect one and another. The program covered eight plantations and was delivered in Tamil, Telugu, and Kannada. This is a first for Tata Coffee, which has, like many companies, struggled to cover blue-collar employees in awareness programs. 

Tata Coffee, too, is thrilled with the results. The CHRO says: “The collaboration has been highly engaging and impactful for us at Tata Coffee at the corporate office. Our employees have received the interventions well and have now opened up much more. It has helped us build transparency and encouraged our employees to speak their point of view on various topics. We have also just completed batches for our blue-collar workers in the estates in local language and the awareness has received extremely positive feedback. We have used this opportunity to refresh and inform them of our reporting channels including providing my contact details for reporting concerns. The partnership with Be.artsy is truly valued by us.”