The land that worships women and strips them in public

In a lecture delivered recently, President Pranab Mukherjee spoke about the need for India to learn to respect its women. “When we brutalise a woman, we wound a civilisation's soul" and “the acid test of any society is its attitude towards women and children”, he added.

These were his thoughts, at a time when the country has been witnessing incessant social media trolling with threats like rape and death targeting women, with utter disregard to the law of the land. This kind of bullying on social media has almost become par for the course to silence dissenting voices.

This column, however, isn't about trolling but about the medium of digital communication, where on one hand anonymity is used as a tool to bully others, and on the other, it allows someone the independent, ‘fearless space’ to be able to share their stories with the world.

One such story that has become a topic of much discussion has been that of an anonymous blogger Indian Fowler (ala Uber’s Susan Fowler), who in her blog alleged that she was sexually molested and harassed at work by the Founder and CEO, Arunabh Kumar of an extremely successful digital content company TVF (The Viral Fever).

The reaction to the blog would have got any responsible organisation to offer to investigate the authenticity of the charges. What however happened was a dismissal of it. The official reply, menacing in its tone and tenor, called the charges ludicrous and defamatory; it also threatened ‘to leave no stone unturned’ to find the author and ‘bring them to severe justice for making such false allegations.’

The colleagues of Arunabh Kumar were quick to come to his defence and rally behind him in support, including women colleagues, which is rather telling of the hypocrisy we live with when it comes to our own. The Tarun Tejpal and RK Pachauri cases are also a reminder of this shameful hypocrisy.

In the case of TVF, after the post went viral, many more women came forward to share their own harassment stories by the man. What was particularly jarring was the reaction to all these charges that kept piling up, nearly 50 such incidents have come to light as I write this post. Justifying the behaviour as that of an average heterosexual man’s reaction to someone he finds attractive is appalling. No, Mr Kumar, your being a heterosexual single male does not give you a free pass and consent to comment on any woman who works with you. Not one bit.

The Vishakha judgment of 1997 had recommended a Complaints Committee at all workplaces, headed by a woman employee. All complaints of sexual harassment by any woman employee would be directed to this committee. This judgement was to ensure gender equality that would help protect women from sexual harassment.

In practice these committees are on paper in most organisations, but continue to be a toothless redressal mechanism for any working woman seeking justice.

A recent survey conducted by an NGO found that 65.2% companies did not follow a proper process under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act 2013. The survey also found that 69.8% of the working women surveyed complained of sexual harassment at their workplace and 68.9% of those who faced this harassment did not come forward to complain about it for various reasons, victim shaming and stigma attached to it being the most prominent reasons.

The TVF-Arunabh Kumar incident is a reminder of many such cases that go largely unreported. The matter should be taken up legally. If need be, suo moto action needs to be taken so that investigation can begin to ensure justice.

It takes a lot of courage for any woman to speak out and stand up for herself but for those who choose silence or scepticism, do remember the words of Martin Luther King, “In the end we will not remember the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends.”

Priyanka Chaturvedi is a columnist, blogger and a national spokesperson of the Congress party.

This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own.