Over the past few years, the world has seen women breaking their silence and openly talking about sexual abuses and assaults. The #MeToo movement, which started in America and took down famous Hollywood director Harvey Weinstein, has encouraged many women to call out their abusers/harassers.
While the movement was powerful in the west, it did not hit India that strongly, until recently. In India, the initial wave of #MeToo wasn’t very organised. We did see its glimpses after a Malayalam actress was attacked. But, it didn’t turn into a mass movement.
However, over the last couple of days, the movement has hit the entertainment and media industry, taking down many big names. Several women have called out their abusers in the comedy circles, Bollywood, and in the media industry.
Here, I would like to admit that I am guilty of witnessing harassment around me and doing nothing about it. In my defence, I didn’t know what to do at that point. Four years ago, a friend from my journalism college applied for a job in Bangalore. She was called for an interview with the resident editor late in the evening. He followed her after the interview, pursued her to tag along, and even grabbed her hand saying he will drop her. She felt very uncomfortable being in the situation and left immediately. She decided not to take up the job even after getting selected. I am the only person she narrated the incident, and I did nothing about it. I am very sorry.
In another such incident, a classmate was dating a stoner(addicted to marijuana) from our batch. After losing my first job, I started hanging out (drink and smoke) with this guy. He used to harass her and abuse her brother. He threatened to beat up her brother using the connections of his ‘mafia family’. I witnessed the entire incident but never did anything. All I did was to tell her to be careful. A few years later, I felt I should have stood up and called out the incident.
I am happy that I decided to cut off from those ‘boys club’ who always downplayed me by saying ‘you are too nice to get a girl to date’.
Now, I feel that women are getting independent and becoming strong individuals. This has made men clueless about how to approach them. Men are unable to put themselves in women’s shoes to understand the situation. I hope such conversations will enlighten everyone on what is okay and what isn’t.