American actress Alyssa Milano’s post on sexual harassment at public places is drawing massive response on the social media and there are many comments from Orissa as well
Arindam Ganguly, OP
BHUBANESWAR: A social media campaign titled “Me Too” is trending in the city after American actress, activist and singer Alyssa Milano posted a tweet October 15 wherein she suggested that all those who have been sexually harassed or assaulted write ‘Me Too’ as a status post. This, she felt, might give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem being faced by both working and non-working women in their daily life.
In day-to-day life, women face situations such as receiving suggestive messages from senior colleagues, unwelcome gropes, brushes and kisses, the deceptively harmless-sounding practice of eve-teasing, forced penetrative sex etc that are all bound together by that common hash-tag #MeToo, exposing the scale of sexual assault in the world today, she has stated.
The tweet by Alyssa Milano came after allegations surfaced against Harvey Weinstein, who co-produced Oscar-winning films from some women, of harassment and rape.
In less than 24 hours after #MeToo post came, it became one of largest trending topics on Twitter with over half a million tweets; and there were a large number of shares on Facebook too. From celebrities like Lady Gaga and Patricia Arquette, there were many who have joined the campaign that has gone viral. According to Facebook, “4.7million people around the world were drawn voluntarily into the ‘Me Too’ chat on Facebook, expressing solidarity with the victims of sexual assault and sexual harassment.”
In the capital here, many women and even men have supported the campaign and posted their message with the ‘tag me too’.
Jyoti Jena (name changed), a social activist from the city, said women faced harassment of this kind regularly. “Instead of standing back and keeping quiet, we should raise our voice, and this initiative is one way of doing that.” She said many women and girls faced such situations in buses, trains, streets, schools, colleges, on way to office, everywhere, by people both known and unknown. In today’s life, when everybody is talking about women empowerment, women should stop tolerating such abuse. “The harassment doesn’t scare me anymore because I know I can take care of myself.”
Zoya Ghosh, a teacher, said she had never spoken about it because she never knew what it was whenever it happened to her. “At least now, people are gathering the courage to speak up against sexual harassment and sexual assault in the open and are coming together to take a stand against it,” she said. “It is extremely important for kids, regardless of their gender, to learn about the difference between a ‘good touch’ and a ‘bad touch’; and it is imperative that parents, teachers and elders educate them about the same.”
Sudipta Narayan Sengupta, a teacher, said that in order to tackle this situation, at least one class a week on this subject must be introduced in schools. It will help educate children on sex and make them aware of the ‘good & bad’ touches.
State Commission for Women(SCW) chairperson Lopamudra Baxipatra said most women (may be around 75 per cent) don’t come out in the open to complain as they are fearful of the consequences thereof, like a job loss or even a life threat. “We have to create a better place for working women so that they can come out and lodge complaints against those who harass them,” she said.
She said the commission has been spreading awareness on this issue. It had conducted two workshops for different sections of women about the act and its implementation. “We have asked private and government firms to set up the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) in their offices. Almost all the government offices have done this. However, several private companies are yet to form such committees in their offices. I will find out whether or not private firms have constituted the ICCs. If not, we will issue notice to the companies to set it up immediately,” she said.
In recent times many cases had come out wherein women have filed cases of sexual harassment. In a sensational case August 18, a PhD student brought up sexual harassment charges against a senior professor of IIT Bhubaneswar and lodged a formal complaint against him and some other officials of the institute at the local Mahila Police Station.
In another sensational case, a sexual harassment case was lodged by a female writer against litterateur Haraprasad Das, which shocked the writers’ fraternity in the state. A group of civil society members had lodged a complaint with the State Commission for Women (SCW) demanding investigation and action against the accused.
