#MeToo, this simple hashtag on Twitter has become a global phenomenon. In 2017 this movement developed in the west and then spread almost all over the world. India and Korea are the countries which experienced the second wave of the movement.
Many MeToo cases and stories were being shared on different social media platforms recently. Those cases were coming from each level of the society be it Bollywood, media, entertainment etc. Women from all over the world have used #MeToo to name their alleged harassers.
In this article, you will get to know what is the MeToo campaign? and what is the MeToo movement in India? Read on to know it all and take your UPSC IAS current affairs preparation a level ahead.
What is the MeToo Campaign?
This is an international level movement against sexual harassment or abuse committed by powerful men of society. Women all over the world publicize the name of the alleged harassers through this movement. This movement became viral as a hashtag on different social media channels thus creating awareness about sexual assault and violence.
This movement empowered women to break their silence and shame those who should be ashamed of their deeds. In this name and shame format, women who have kept their suffering as a deep dark secret for years finally came out and openly took the name of the accused.
The MeToo movement has brought in notice various forms and cases of sexual assaults including unwelcomed gropes, extra caring seniors at the workplace, eve-teasing etc. This global movement has made the administrative people in charge take this as a serious problem and begin a redressal process.
What are MeToo Allegations?
From inappropriate or disrespectful behaviours to rape, many MeToo stories have been creating storms on social media platforms where many public and well-known personalities have been accused.
Many women who have shared their MeToo stories have revealed their identity where there are many others too who wished to keep their identity a secret. Below is a list of MeToo allegations which were done by women without hiding their identity.
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MeToo Cases in India
| Accused | MeToo case | Accused by | Status |
| Vairamuthu – Lyricist |
|
Chinmayi Sripaada | Allegation denied. |
| Zulfi Syed – Model-actor |
|
Natasha Hemrajani | Syed apologises to Hemrajani |
| Piyush Mishra – Writer-actor |
|
Ketki Joshi. | Mishra apologises for hurting. |
| Aditi Mittal – Comedienne |
|
Kaneez Surka | Mittal issues an unconditional apology. |
| Zain Durrani – Actor |
|
Saloni Chopra | No comment. |
| Manoj Ramachandran – Journalist |
|
Sandhya Menon | No statement. |
| Prashant Jha – Journalist |
|
Avantika Mehta | Accused taken down from the position of the chief of the bureau and political editor of Hindustan Times |
| Sham Kaushal – Stunt director |
|
Nameeta Prakash | Accused apologised for hurting inadvertently. |
| Vinod Dua – Journalist |
|
Nishtha Jain | Allegations referred to as mudslinging by the accused. |
| Shahid Datawala – Photographer |
|
Amaaya Dasgupta | Datawala’s exhibition dropped from Gallery TARQ. Unconditional public apology issued by the accused. |
Infamous MeToo Bollywood Cases
This global movement shook India and the entertainment industry was the most affected industry. While some of the accused got a clean chit, some are still struggling within the industry due to these allegations.
Bollywood actor Nana Patekar was accused by former actress Tanushree Dutta for sexually harassing her during the shooting of one movie. The actor denied the allegation and filed a police complaint against Dutta.
Alok Nath, a popular television actor was accused of rape by writer-director Vinta Nanda and sexual advances by Actress Sandhya Mridul.
Bollywood director Sajid Khan was accused by many women that include Saloni Chopra, Priyanka Bose, Mandana Karimi etc.
Negative Trends Associated with the MeToo Movement
- Many fake stories were circulated on the internet that had no proper identification of the person who made the allegation.
- Organisations are focusing more on the redressal of these issues than trying to prevent it.
- More sympathy is being shown than people actually making efforts to stop women suffering from sexual abuses.
- Name shaming has become easy as with this #MeToo movement, anyone can name and shame any man in order to destroy his image.
- Another negative impact of this MeToo backlash is that many of the accused can harm those coming out and taking their name.
- There are many people who believe that MeToo is an elitist movement which might bring justice to high profile cases while women working at the grassroots level are still harassed.
- MeToo stories are most of the time coming from urban women who are economically empowered and also have a voice. Even though this movement aims to bring sexual harassment cases under the broad daylight, it fails in that because women outside the urban area do not even know about this.
- This campaign only brings out the MeToo cases in front of the people without giving any solution to get justice.
- Other than being only focused on high profile cases and being a MeToo Bollywood movement, this campaign should also focus on trans-women, non-binary folks, homosexual men and women.
Conclusion
In response to the #MeToo campaign, a group of ministers was established for recommending effective measures for the implementation of the law against sexual abuse or harassment at the workplace and for strengthening the legal institutional framework.
This MeToo movement has made many women talk about their suffering that eventually encouraged a lot more other women to share their story as well. This movement has greatly helped in making people talk about sexual harassment.
Hopefully, this article will help you get prepared for the UPSC IAS current affairs section more effectively. You can share your thoughts on this by commenting in the box below.
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