It has been approximately two weeks since actor Tanushree Dutta accused Nana Patekar of sexual misconduct. The actor accused Patekar of misbehaving badly with her on the sets of a movie ten years ago and also called out on the director and producer who asked her to listen to Patekar's demand. Pandora's box of sorts has been opened since then with actors and other cine artists coming out an accusing names like Kailash Kher, Subhash Ghai and Sajid Khan of sexual misbehaviour. The movement also caught up among media circles where names like former journalist and union minister MJ Akbar, Times of India Hyderabad editor K Sreenivas and Prashant Jha, The Hindustan Times chief of bureau and political editor have been accused.
In some of these cases, people have been ousted. Tanmay Bhat, founder of AIB stepped down on account of inaction against Gursimran Khamba a comedy artist, part of the company who had been accused of sexual misconduct. TOI editor K Sreenivas is away on administrative leave after accusations surfaced against him, and women directors in Bollywood have come forward and vowed never to work again with those proven guilty of sexual abuse or sexual misconduct which included a slew of names including Sajid Khan, Nana Patekar, Alok Nath, Subhash Ghai, Rajat Kapoor, Anu Malik, Abhijeet Bhattacharya, Vikas Bahl and Varun Grover. The women who have come out against these perpetrators too, are influencers in their own right. They include Zoya Akhtar, Gauri Shinde, Konkona Sensharma, Nandita Das, Reema Kagti, Alankrita Sharma, Kiran Rao and Meghna Gulzar among others.
But in some other cases, organisations where the accused men work, or employers of the women who have undergone harassment have not addressed the issue in any adequate manner. In the case of MJ Akbar, a man who holds a position of much power, nine women, if not less have come forth accusing him of sexual misconduct in the work place. Why is his immediate superior Sushma Swaraj and the PM Narendra Modi then maintaining and stoic silence and not demanding any sort of explanation from the man? Are all the accusers (all nine of them) really spiced up by 'malice and innuendo'? Then it must be a conspiracy indeed!
Lets reflect for minute at what is happening in Mollywood. Actor Dileep, who has been accused as a conspirator behind a female actor being harassed, molested and filmed in a moving car. Association for Malayalam Movie Artists(AMMA) had at the time of Dileep's arrest, stripped the actor off the membership. Exactly a year later, he was reinstated without much hesitation. Women in Cinema Collective (WCC) slammed the AMMA for their decision to reinstate the actor who had been accused of molestation and rape. They also went on to say that the industry is not a safe place to talk about incidents of sexual misconduct or harassment.
In the meanwhile Malayalam actors Mukesh and Alencier have also been accused of sexual harassment. The question remains, will associations like AMMA ever be able to provide a safe environment for women to come out an speak? Especially against those holding higher power? Will women be able to do so without fearing victim shaming? A CEO of an ad agency was accused by at least five women in his organisation of sexual misconduct, inappropriate behaviour and conversations laced with innuendo. And now, not only are the screenshots accusing this man missing from the online space, but the CEO has done a turnaround and announced that he would sue the female employees for defamation.
In the case of Union Minister MJ Akbar, he has sued journalist Priya Ramani, one of the first to come out with an accusation against him with 97 lawyers from a law firm representing him. He also went on to say that the allegations count for nothing as 'nothing happened' as stated by Ramani and some other survivors. " If I didn't do anything, where and what is the story? There is no story,” he said in a statement. Let it be pointed out Dear Minister, that for a young woman, actions like conducting interviews in hotel rooms, asking her to sit next to you on a bed and singing romantic songs, too, can be scary and deem to be inappropriate behaviour.
Other allegations against the minister where he claims nothing happened include forcefully kissing a couple of women including an 18-year-old intern from UK. Let it be known that this definitely is a calling card for more probable misbehaviour at the workplace. He also goes on to mention another incident involving “Ms Ghazala Wahab, in an effort to damage my reputation. She claimed that she had been molested in office, 21 years ago. This is 16 years before I entered public life, and when I was in media.”
The number of years passed post the incident do not matter. The minister's position, one holding power in the public space does. One has to bear in mind that sexual assault, no matter when the incident took place traumatises the survivor mentally and emotionally. Also, the fact that a slew of allegations have surfaced now is proof enough that these women did not feel that it was safe to come out and speak against someone in power while the incident took place. The onus for this lies on the organisation where incidents such as these take place; to provide women, however marginal they may be, a safe and sound environment wherein they can voice their concerns without being shamed.
The workplace largely has been a male-dominated domain. This has been true especially in the 80's and a large part of the 90's. Even in 2017, according to reports, the percentage of women in the labour force is a marginal 28.5 per cent as compared to 82 per cent for men. And in a work environment dominated by males, it is difficult for women to voice certain concerns including fatigue during periods or pregnancy for fear of being seen as incompetent.
It is high time that organisations step up; review their policies on sexual harassment, pull up any employee who misbehaves with their female employees— this includes persistently inviting them for 'dates' despite refusal from the woman's part and seemingly casual inquiry into a woman's sex life. Organisations need to identify instances of probable misbehaviour, especially form those in positions of seniority. Women are especially scared of speaking up against men in authority. What seems like casual flirtation in the male eye, need not seem so for the woman. Conversations laced with innuendo clearly should be declared a no-no. It should be made clear by the HR and management that no such behaviour will be tolerated by any of its employees and a thorough investigation will be taken no matter how big or small the offence may be. Guarantee should be given that the survivor will not be shamed in any manner and anonymity will be provided to the survivor for as long as she or he wishes.
