#MeToo 2.0: A wake-up call for India’s men and our society

It has been just a fortnight that actor Tanushree Dutta accused Nana Patekar of misconduct and misbehaviour. But the #MeToo 2.0, it set off has already seen an avalanche of accusations of sexual harassment and assault against people, both famous and not, from different walks of life. There have been debates on the efficacy of due processes, on the merits and demerits of anonymous lists naming and shaming people. But, one thing is for sure. This is a clear wake-up call for Indian men to finally understand the importance of consent and propriety. Sexual harassment is something that women in India face right from their childhood, often at the hands of relatives and family friends, and well into their workplaces once they have become mature adults. It is important to acknowledge that and it is equally important to stop doubting women. It exists in media, politics, academia, entertainment, in corporate offices and even in the legal and medical professions.

Media needs to treat sexual harassment as a very serious problem. The number of women in the media has increased manifold over the last 25 years or so. Many of them occupy high positions. Attempts must be made to make the newsroom a safe place for women to work and be themselves. As the list of names of editors and journalists keeps growing, the Editors Guild of India on Tuesday, October 9, issued a statement condemning the harassment of female journalists in newsrooms and expressed its solidarity towards those who have spoken about the issue in public. Charity begins at home. If the media has to retain its vaunted moral position as the watchdog of the society, structural changes need to be brought in the organisations as soon as possible.

One major grievance that most women who have spoken out have voiced is the lack of due processes, or the non-seriousness with which enquiries are often conducted. This is unfortunately true. This is a major area of concern. If perpetrators are duly punished, it will act as a deterrent for others. Offices and businesses must rope in gender right activists and jurists to create watertight processes. Also, in this flurry of accusations aided by the age of social media, there are bound to be odd errors or vengeful but untrue allegations. But women in this country have suffered for far too long and that is no reason to not believe those who have suffered in silence. If our society had taken this menace seriously, there would have been no need for women to publish anonymous lists. And then, people could not have held kangaroo courts on the social media. We missed the bus in 2017 when #MeToo 1.0 came. We must not miss the bus the second time.