No time in the Nation’s history witnessed the situation when
women, in such a large number, gathered the courage to take on their perpetrators,
by naming them publicly, which is in itself an unprecedented event towards paving
a way to ensure better women’s safety and security for generations to come.
The recent few weeks have been instrumental in making a long-lasting
impression in Indian patriarchal society, where girls/women are ashamed of
coming forward to report sexual assault with themselves.
With #MeToo movement sweeping the nation; women from
different walks of lives challenged the status quo, where victims are
suppressed to stay mum, by naming the names of sexual predators on social
media.
Although gradually, but #MeToo movement gathered momentum in
India, and people from different fraternities come forward in the support of
victims.
India’s #MeToo movement gathered impetus when model-turned
actress Tanushree Dutta, during a TV interview, accused veteran Bollywood actor
Nana Patekar of sexual harassment at the sets of film, Horn ok Please, in 2008.
After United States and China, it took a bit to take off in
India, but gradually the movement has taken the nation by storm, as it was
followed by hundreds of women from film, media, corporate and other fraternities, exposing their harassers
on Twitter and Facebook, as India media is giving special coverage to the
movement in prime time show.
In what could be a metamorphic happening in India’s modern
history, the women gathered courage to report their sexual harassment at work
place by taking the names of people who walked away with it as nothing
happened, and who also holds influential positions in their respective fields.
After Dutta, including actress Sona Mohapatra, Kangana
Ranaut, Kate Sharma, film producer Vinta Nanda, journalists- Priya Ramani,
Shuma Raha, Kanika Gahlaut,Suparna Sharma, Ghazala Wahab, Saba Naqvi, Kadambari
Wade, Ruth David, Malini Bhupta, Janice Sequeira and Ira Trivedi- many women
expressed their #MeToo moments in last few weeks over social media.
The movement took the country by shock as people from film
celebrities like Nana Patekar, Annu Malik, Sajid Khan, Utsav Chakraborty, Vikas
Bahl, Alok Nath, singer Abhijeet, director Subhash Ghai to notable author
Chatan Bhagat, Suhel Seth and Rajya Sabha Member and former Minister of State for
External Affairs M J Akbar have been accused of sexual harassment of their
female colleagues at work place on social media.
Following the
sexual harassment and rape allegations, Cine and TV Artistes’ Association (CINTTA) expelled actor Alok Nath
from the organization, while owing to mounting
pressure of #MeToo movement on central government, MJ Akbar, accused by 16
female journalists, who held various influential positions at Asian Age, The
Telegraph and India Today, had to resign from the post.
Even corporate world didn’t remain untouched from waves of
movement, as women in corporate sector also opened up to report their #MeToo
moments, leading them to revisit their policy to ensure safety and security of
female employees at work place.
Also, taking serious note on the issue, Maneka Gandhi,
Minister of Women and Child Welfare appointed a high-level committee of judges
to look into each and every case reported case under the #MeToo movement.
Given the recent developments revolving around women’s safety
across the country, the actual storm of #MeToomovement began brewing inside
victims of such incidents since December 2012 after brutal gang-rape of a
Nirbhaya, which led to a nationwide outrage followed by government taking
numbers of measures to ensure more safety for women.
However, the harsh reality is that like #Nirbhaya movement,
#MeToo too remains stuck only to big cities, as women’s voice is still clamped
down by male dominant society, when it comes to sexual assault in small cities,
moffussil towns and villages. They still cannot gather courage to speak up as patriarchal
society takes toll on them to keep them shut across the hinterland.
Following national-wide outrage after Nirbhaya rape tragedy,
there were abrupt increase in number of cases reported pertaining to women assault/rape,
however, as the movement lost its spate, situation returned to what it was
before December 2012.
Being one of the most conservative societies, coupled with regional
and language differences, and limited access to technology, the India’s #MeToo’s
still strives to stretch its reach from urban elites to women in semi-urban and
rural areas, where more than half of the country’s women live in vulnerable
conditions.
