Silence...
We need to make the world a safer place for our girls,” she has said (in reports). Deep under the pain and humiliation lies an irrevocable realisation that courageous voices are squashed due to recrimination and a society that is quick to ostracise. We are in grave danger of losing faith, credibility and truth-seeking as the metoo campaign has not awakened those silent voices to action as calling out perpetrators in our country is faint at best, and non-existent as a rule.
Columnist Shobhaa De has written an honest column for this article (complete column on far right), where she says, “Nobody wants to address the elephant in the room, which is that women have had to put up with sexual harassment in the workplace for decades. Shut up and put up. They have done so out of fear. Fear of losing their jobs, their livelihoods, their dignity. Those who have gutsily called out their tormentors have found themselves isolated and ostracised — even by other women.”
But voices that have the fortitude to come out need the support of the judiciary, and therein lies the paradox which Supreme Court lawyer Saurabh Kirpal has succinctly addressed, “Sexual harassment has not been a priority for us. The Supreme Court laid down the Vishakha guidelines on sexual harassment in 1997. In the judgment they directed that the guidelines would be in force till parliament enacted a law in this regard. But it took parliament 16 years to finally enact a law in 2013. This delay is a symptom of the fact that true workplace equality, even though it is embodied in the Directive Principles of State Police in our Constitution, is not a matter of urgency or priority for the authorities.” A staunch women’s activist and bestselling author, Sreemoyee Piu Kundu has seen abuse and harassment closely with her new book Status Single, where she interviewed 3,000 women. She reveals, “Like in other parts of the world, sexual harassment at work is a serious offence. But a survey by the Indian National Bar Association that was carried out in 2017 revealed that of the 6,047 participants (both men and women), 38 per cent faced harassment at work and of these 69 per cent chose silence. Apart from the fear of losing their jobs and a lifelong cursed stigma, there is the looming reality of long winding legal procedures, and in a country where rapists are let loose and ministers and businessmen involved in multi-crore scams go scot free, a woman’s shrill voice is seldom heard or given the respect it deserves.” Sexual harassment in India is very much a living and breathing entity that hides behind the lack of justice. Corporate India does have anti-sexual harassment committees but sees a misuse of it, while other industries do not have a formal body for such complaints, or are there merely in name. Designer Wendell Rodricks believes that it is prevalent in all industries, he feels, “If anyone finds the courage to speak up, the legal system wrings out any sense of justice because of the long drawn battle. The metoo campaign is good for both men and women. When fashion photographers Mario Testino and Bruce Weber were accused by male models of sexual exploitation, it just reiterated the fact that it is prevalent in all industries. But if we pause, and understand the issue for what it is in India, it’s terribly grave. The reality is that it is extremely difficult for a person to come out in the open against an abuser. For him or her, it means living with the shame for decades (especially in the Indian context). The shame does not go away unless there is a legal mechanism that sees justice prevail, and a society that apologises. Unfortunately, the judicial system takes too long. But if we see a few cases come to the fore, I do personally feel that there will be ripples in India as well, with more proponents of the metoo campaign, and people will come out and have the strength to voice this abuse. The fact that sexual harassment is happening, not just in the glamour and fashion industry but across corporate, finance and media, needs to be brought out. It is happening in my industry, and some male models strongly believe that if you do not succumb to this power struggle you are at a loss. That you have to sleep with someone to succeed if you want to get ahead, and that needs to be stopped. Sadly, sometimes, I have seen families collude