MeToo: How organisations have let down their women

It has been almost two weeks since actor Tanushree Dutta accused Nana Patekar of sexual harassment on the sets of a film ten years ago and also called out on the director and producer who asked her to give in to Patekar's demand. She opened the proverbial Pandora's box with her allegations, and since then, actors and other cine artists have come out with allegations of sexual harassment against Kailash Kher, Subhash Ghai and Sajid Khan. The movement also entered the media circles, with former journalist and Union minister M.J. Akbar, Times of India Hyderabad editor K. Sreenivas and Hindustan Times chief of bureau and political editor Prashant Jha being accused.

In some of these cases, people have been 'ousted' or have 'stepped away'. Tanmay Bhat, founder of AIB, stepped down on account of inaction against Utsav Chakraborty, who is part of the company and who was accused of sexual misconduct. TOI editor K. Sreenivas is away on administrative leave after accusations surfaced against him. Women directors in Bollywood like Zoya Akhtar, Gauri Shinde, Konkona Sensharma, Nandita Das, Reema Kagti, Alankrita Sharma, Kiran Rao and Meghna Gulzar 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.

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 an adequate manner. In the case of M.J. Akbar—a Union minister now, no less—nine women, if not fewer, have accused him of sexual misconduct at the workplace. Why is his immediate superior Sushma Swaraj and Prime Minister Narendra Modi maintaining a stoic silence and not demanding any sort of explanation from him?

Take Mollywood, for instance. Actor Dileep was arrested on the charge of being the key conspirator in the abduction and molestation of a female actor in a moving car. Association for Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA) had, at the time of Dileep's arrest, terminated his membership. Exactly a year later, he was reinstated. The Women in Cinema Collective (WCC) slammed the AMMA for their decision to reinstate the actor. They also went on to say that the industry is not a safe place to talk about incidents of sexual misconduct or harassment.

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 and speak? Especially against those in 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.

Union Minister M.J. Akbar, too, 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. For a woman, conducting interviews in hotel rooms, asking her to sit next to you on a bed and singing romantic songs, can be extremely discomfiting.

The fact that a slew of allegations have surfaced now is proof enough that these women did not feel it was safe to come out and speak against someone in power while the incident took place. The onus lies with the organisation where such incidents 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 80s and a large part of the 90s. Even in 2017, according to reports, the percentage of women in the labour force was 28.5 per cent. 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, which 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 from those in senior positions. Women are especially scared of speaking up against men in authority. What seems like casual flirtation to the male eye, may not seem so to the woman. Conversations laced with innuendo should be a clear no-no. It should be made clear by the HR and management that such behaviour will not be tolerated and a thorough investigation will be done 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.