As the #metoo movement gathers momentum and becomes stronger in the country, then a new survey has revealed that a staggering 78% of women choose not to report experiences of sexual harassment at workplaces.

In Shinningyou I Will share You About #metoo movement.

A survey conducted by Local Circles and, which polled more than 28,000 votes from 15,000 people, shows that 32% of the respondents said they personally, or someone from their family has experienced sexual harassment at workplaces.

45% of women who reported no such experiences and while 23% said that they were “unsure.”

About 40% of the participants of the survey were from tier-1 cities, 28% from tier-2 cities and 32% belonged to tier-3 cities and rural areas.

It is notable

surprisingly that 78% of them said that they did not take up the matter with the concerned authorities.

The survey further revealed that 50% incidents of harassment happened during regular work hours and while 19% said that it happened after-working hours.

Apart from that, approx  31% of the respondents said that such incidents occurred beyond office premises in social gatherings and other private spaces.

The survey also looked into the nature of sexual harassment that is carried out at workplaces.

While 50% said physical advances were made, 19% of the respondents revealed that they were asked for sexual favors.

About 31% of the women said they faced harassment in the form of sexually color remarks or were forcibly made to watch porn.

So friends, see the statistics and shame on us.

Sme Society and Organisation have taken initiative on that.

Civil society initiatives:

A slew of efforts from civil societies is being launched on a smaller scale. The activist group “I Will Go Out” has released support and resource list for victims and survivors.

1. Education:

In response to the ever-growing list of #metoo allegations, educational institutions have been pushed to institute new measures for safety.

The Jammu Kashmir Directorate of school education is constituting a district-level sexual harassment committee.

Pune’s Symbiosis media college is inviting students and alumni for discussions on sexual harassment on campus, a phenomenon that is gaining ground in several colleges around the country.

2. Sports:

Although #metoo has not yet made a big dent in the world of sports, tennis star Mahesh Bhupathi has come out in support of the movement.

BCCI CEO Rahul Johri has been accused of sexual harassment and the Committee of Administrators has sought an explanation from him and the ICC has requested the BCCI not to send him for meetings after the allegations. He is now on leave.

TATA motors have also sent its corporation head Suresh Rangarajan on leave to conduct an inquiry into allegations of sexual harassment made against him.

Likewise, KWAN Talent Management Agency Pvt. Ltd. has asked Anirban Das Blah to step aside from all his duties.

Ajit Thakur, head of content studio of Entertainment and Media business of Reliance Industries has resigned.

3. Corporate and advertising:

The impact of #metoo has also been seen in the corporate and advertising world with several resignations and investigations underway.

Mudra Institute of Communications Ahmedabad (MICA) has set up a special committee to “suo motu and proactively” take cognizance of allegations made against the director of crafting creative communication Praveen Mishra.

Publicist India has sacked its creative director Ishrath Nawaz who was accused of sexual misconduct.

The statement from Publicist India’s twitter handle confirmed the termination of Nawaz’s services after investigation.

Co-founder of Utopia Communication, Sudarshan Banerjee was sent on leave after four women accused him of sexual misconduct.

4. Law:

In the legal sphere, plenty of lawyers and judges have come out in support of #metoo, like Supreme Court judge (retd) Sujatha Manohar, Bombay high court judge Justice Gautam Patel and High court judge (retd) Prabha Sridevan.

Law student, Koshika Krishna, filed a petition with the Ministry of Women and Child Development instructing companies to declare information about their anti-sexual harassment cell members on their website.

The Alternative Law Forum is offering legal support to survivors.

5. Literature:

A group started by writer and editor Rajni George petitioned the Jaipur Literature Festival to support #metoo movement.

In their response, the JLF organizers said they ‘stand by women’ and that no writer or public personality named so far as a sexual offender has been invited to the forthcoming edition of JLF.

Over 1,000 people signed the petition including Gurucharan Das, Nilanjana S.Roy and Wendy Doniger.

Writer Sachin Garg has apologized to women who accused him of sexual misconduct in the past.

Subodh Sankar, co-founder of the Atta Galatta bookstore, which is a partner on the Bangalore Literature Festival, says that the festival would “not provide a platform to, and thus legitimize, any person credibly accused of sexual misconduct of any kind”.

At the inaugural address of the JCB Prize for Literature, Rana Dasgupta, director of JCB prize expressed, his support to the #metoo movement.

6. Art:

Renowned painter Jatin Das was accused by four women of making unwelcome advances.

In a statement, he said he was “deeply anguished by the recent allegations made against me.

The first thing I want to say is that everyone has the right to speak out.

Having said that I want to categorically state that I have never forced myself or been abusive towards any woman…

However, I do want to say at this point that if any woman has experienced any kind of discomfort because of me, I sincerely apologies. It was never my intention.”

Photographer Pablo Bartholomew, the subject of an anonymous allegation, has been disinvited by Festival Photo Kathmandu.

Artist and Kochi-Muziris Biennale co-founder Riyas Komu apologized for his sexual misconduct, stating his support for the movement.

7. NGOs:

Video Volunteers founder Stalin K. Padma has stepped down after several women came forward alleging sexual harassment by him.

The School of Media and Culture Studies at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences has decided to cut its associations with Video Volunteers.

Teach for India sent three of its staff on leave for a pending investigation after sexual harassment claims against them. Their CEO called it “a wake-up call”.  People’s Watch director Mathew Jacob resigned after allegations of sexual misconduct were leveled against him.

Women’s rights NGO Saheli issued a press release detailing how feminist groups and individuals across the country are extending support to #MeToo.

Deepika Padukone’s Live Love Laugh Foundation released a statement announcing that one of its trustees, Anirban Das Blah, had resigned following allegations of sexual harassment, and their support for survivors.

A collective of over 300 NGOs intends to start a ‘Dignity March’ to take #metoo movement to rural areas.‘Mahila Bol’, a nationwide initiative to address issues of sexual harassment at workplace, extended support to #MeToo survivors.

8. Music:

Filmmaker Ashok Pandit tweeted to Kailash Kher not to threaten victims of sexual harassment.

Kher has been dropped from a Diwali event by Udaipur’s mayor who said, “Since his name has appeared in the Me Too campaign, it’s our moral responsibility to not invite him.”

Sony Entertainment television asked Anu Malik to step down as an Indian Idol judge show.

Supporting #metoo, A.R. Rahman promised to create a safe environment for everyone at his workplace.

The Madras Music Academy dropped seven musicians accused of sexual harassment (N. Ravikiran, O.S. Thyagarajan, Mannargudi A.Easwaran, Srimushnam V. Raja Rao, Nagai Sriram, R. Ramesh, and Thiruvarur Vaidyanathan.)

They also expressed solidarity with the movement (Their secretary Pappu Venugopala Rao resigned last year after his name featured on an anonymous list put out by Raya Sarkar).

Chennai’s ‘Federation of City Sabhas’ has also got together and set up an internal committee to probe sexual harassment complaints.

Ravikiran and the others have denied the charges.

Singer Raghu Dixit issued an apology after being accused of sexual harassment on Twitter.

Collectively, artists from the Carnatic music industry wrote an open letter against sexual harassment that was widely shared to show solidarity with survivors.

9. Entertainment, comedy:

After comedian Utsav Chakraborty was accused of sexually harassing multiple women, including minors, the comedy world strongly condemned the behavior. Utsav Chakraborty apologized for his actions.

Founder of comedy group All India Bakchod Tanmay Bhatt was accused of deliberately ignoring these allegations and continuing to work with Chakraborty.

Bollywood actors Emraan Hashmi, Radhika Apte, Farhan Akhtar, Priyanka Chopra, Ajay Devgan,Swara Bhaskar, Richa Chadha, Konkana Sen Sharma,  Ayushman Khurrana , Malaika Arora , Sonam Kapoor, Arjun Kapoor, Parineeti Chopra, Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone, Tisca Chopra, Gulshan Devaiah, Jim Sarbh, Ronnie Screwala among several others and author Shobhaa De came out in support of the movement.

 Star TV Network also supported this movement.

 Eleven Bollywood women directors, including Konkana Sen Sharma, Nandita Das, Gauri Shinde, Shonali Bose, Kiran Rao and Zoya Akhtar said they would not work with them whose name has come on this issue.

CINTAA and Producer’s Guild of India agreed to form a special committee to look into the matter.

CINTAA announced two committees to tackle sexual harassment, with actors Raveena Tandon and Renuka Shahane and filmmaker Amole Gupte to be part of a complaints redressal committee.

And actor Swara Bhasker will set up a sub-committee to increase awareness on film sets.

Producer’s Guild asked its members to sign a declaration to implement POSH guidelines.

Why don’t we try to change it? 

We can change it in our house, locality, office, school, college, bus stop, public place,  garden, party gathering……..

Now the time has come, we will respect our sister, girls, midwife, young lady, colleague, classmate, neighbor, relatives, celebrity, whatever possible availability.

Below is a list of significant personalities that have appeared in various publications over the last three weeks on the issues raised by the #metoo movement, including a few critical perspectives.

The battle is far from over.

Mr. Akbar has blamed that Ms. Ramani of “intentionally putting forward malicious, fabricated and salacious” allegations to harm his reputation and carrier.

After Ms. Ramani, so many women are giving allegations against Mr.Akbar.

The list includes Prerna Singh Bindra

 Ghazala Wahab

 Shutapa Paul

Anju Bharti

Suparna Sharma

Shuma Raha

Malini Bhupta

Kanika Gahlout

Kadambari M Wade

 Majlie de Puy Kamp

 Ruth David.

 

The  #metoo movement, which began in the United States more than a year ago, now it is spreading in India after former actor Tanushree Dutta accused her co-star Nana Patekar of sexual harassment.

Since then, several men in the media, entertainment, political and art worlds have been accused of offenses ranging from sexual harassment to rape.

Tanushree Dutta spoke up about the incident recently as the  #metoo campaign caught on in the country.

She lodged a criminal court case against Patekar and others then she sent a fresh letter to CINTAA, which issued a notice to Patekar.

Suburban Oshiwara police in Mumbai last week registered a case also under IPC section 354 which is -outraging the modesty of a woman by applying criminal force- against Patekar and also others.

The statement about Patekar’s exit from the film came hours after Sajid Khan – who was helming Housefull 4 – announced that he was stepping down as the director of the project after being accused of sexual harassment by three women in separate #metoo accounts.

On the same day, Akshay Kumar, who is the lead of the film, also demanded cancellation of Housefull 4’s shoot “until further investigation”.

With the #metoo movement gaining momentum fastly.

Actor-politician Kamal Haasan said Friday men also accused of sexual harassment by women then it should respond to the allegations as well.

Asked for his response, Haasan initially told that only “the accused should respond (to the allegations).”

“If all respond, it could be wrong; won’t be fair too,” the Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) chief said.
Former DNA and TOI editor-in-chief, Gautam Adhikari, has quit the US think-tank Centre for American Progress (CAP) after he was accused of kissing at least three women in office without their consent.

K.R. Sreenivas, resident editor (Hyderabad) of Times of India resigned after journalist Sandhya Menon and six other women sent a petition to Bennett Coleman and Co. Ltd. detailing accounts of harassment by him.

Hindustan Times’s bureau chief Prashant Jha stepped down from his position after a lawyer who earlier worked at the newspaper as a journalist, Avantika Mehta, accused him of approaching her for a relationship.

Though the exchange of messages she posted occurred after she had left the newspaper, Jha, who is married, said he was resigning because of the allegation raised “moral questions” about his conduct.

And he did not want his newspaper to suffer anymore.

The Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chief Swati Maliwal wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to set up an investigation committee.

This comitee will  initiate probes against the people who have been accused of sexual misconduct.

Rahul Gandhi spoke out in support of #metoo, saying women need to be treated with dignity and respect.

Rahul Gandhi also accepted NSUI president Fairoz Khan’s resignation after sexual harassment charges surfaced against Khan.

Congress politicians like Sachin Pilot, Salman Khurshid, Rajya Sabha MP Vivek Tankha, Kapil Sibal, Srinivas B.V. and Shashi Tharoor welcomed the long overdue moment of reckoning and stated their intention to stand in solidarity with the movement.

Kiran Bedi extended her support to the movement after mentioning an incident of sexual harassment in Puducherry.

DMK MP Kanimozhi tweeted in solidarity with the movement and underscored the need to believe victims.

After casting director Tess Joseph shared her #metoo story of sexual harassment against Malayalam actor and CPI (M) MLA Mukesh Kumar, multiple groups and opposition parties protested demanding his resignation.

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You can read here also-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Me_Too_movement

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