The Globalization of the Me Too Movement: The Case Study of India

Introduction

The hashtag Me Too Movement took the world by storm starting in 2017. The globalization of the Me Too Movement allowed for women everywhere to speak out and share their stories. In India, Me Too allowed women to share their stories to combat sexual harassment regardless of the religious and political oppression they faced by paving the way, for more awareness and potential legal changes. This paper will examine how the Me Too movement aims to empower Indian women to courageously speak up against perpetrators as well as assist in law reforms regarding women's rights. Sexual harassment has been a serious problem faced by many women in India and throughout the world. (Smuskiewicz, 2018)

A Brief History of Me Too Movement

The Me Too movement began in the United States with the activist Tarana Burke in 2006 to raise awareness about women who had been abused. It was not until 11 years later that the movement took off on social media in October 2017. American actress Alyssa Milano shared her sexual assault story against Harvey Weinstein on Twitter and added the hashtag Me Too (#metoo). The tweet went viral as well as the hashtag as many Hollywood actresses came forward against Weinstein. In late 2017 and early 2018 the hashtag Me Too was all over social media pages and the internet as women in US and beyond shared the harassment stories. (Smuskiewicz,2018)

Globalization of Me Too Movement

The hashtag Me Too went viral and the movement that started in the US quickly spread to countries throughout the globe. In countries like Japan, Australia, and India the Me Too movement shook the country to its core, exposing inequalities in laws and rights based on gender. The hashtag Me Too reached Japan at the end of 2017. Yumi Ishikawa an actress believed that bullying at the workplace, sexual assault, and sexual violence had nothing to do with her even though she had been a victim of gender based discrimination for a long time. The hashtag Me Too movement assisted people in realizing that sexual assault, as well as violence, are problems affecting their lives each day. It became hard for a journalist called Shiori Ito to live in Japan after courageously accusing a prominent man of rape which is a common thing to do for most outspoken women in Japan. Women gather the courage to speak up but get silenced by many people. Yumi Ishikawa began the hashtag Ku-Too movement which started with her tweet having complaints regarding the dress code culture that forced several women to put on high heels. (Smuskiewicz, 2018)

Using shoes as a lens was something that seemed more familiar to the majority than sexual violence and this helped the people of Japan to understand how sexual discrimination is close to home and the different shapes it can assume. Each day she received messages saying that people now realize how sexual discrimination happens each day. Other people tried to block Yumi Ishikawa from talking about sexual discrimination saying that the issues effecting Japanese women did not involve sexual discrimination. However, after one year of hashtag Ku Too movement began, their voices had reached the majority of people in Japan. The Prime Minister in March said that women should not be forced to put on high heels. This acted as a step forward in achieving more equality of the genders. (Smuskiewicz, 2018)

Australians were fast to embrace the Me Too hashtag when it went viral in 2017. An original stories’ article published focused on prominent men including Geoffrey Rush, an Oscar award winning actor, accusing him of sexual misconduct. The actor denied the account and was compensated 2 million US dollars after successfully winning a lawsuit against Countrywide News defaming him in 2 articles, they published in 2017. His colleague Craig McLachlan is currently taking a lawsuit against the Broadcasting corporation of Australia as well as Fairfax Media for defaming him after they leveled allegations of inappropriate and indecent behavior; he was charged with assault. The lawsuits combating allegation frighted outspoken women. Australia has no free speech protection and freedom of the media is not consecrated in law. Also, the country has some of the most restrictive laws of defamation globally. These restrictive laws greatly favor the accused. (Smuskiewicz, 2018)

In November 2019 , the confidence of many victims was destroyed when a revelation was made that the Broadcasting Corporation of Australia had shared the footage of them to other outlets of media having personal disclosures of rapes. The women who spoken out did not know that their faces, real names, and disclosures were recorded. The Survivors for Survivors’ campaign attained traction in changing some archaic gag laws of victims in Australia. Shockingly, at the time the Me Too went viral, it was illegal for victims of sexual assault in the Northern Border and Tasmania to be identified in media. A journalist could get fined heavily or get jailed for 6 months for exposing a victim even with their consent. News Corporation and End Rape on Campus Australia began the campaign on the hashtag LetHerSpeak in 2018 to propose reforms of law in response to this harsh blow. Tasmania currently modified the gag laws, and the Northern Border has drafted suggested legislation to solve these issues indicating that advocacy can make a change. (Smuskiewicz, 2018)

Rise of Me too in India

The Indian Me Too movement began to manifest at the end of 2018 and continues strong to this day. In Indian society, perpetrators are being called out from all areas including the media, government, and the film industry of Bollywood. Women were inspired by an international campaign against sexual assault and harassment and women spoke up and began sharing their stories of abuse by high profile men. It started in October 2018 when Tanushree Dutta made allegations against Nana Patekar for sexually harassing her during a filming for the movie called Horn OK Please in 2008. This was followed by a series of posts by other women who spoke up on their experiences all over India. A lot of sexual accusations surfaced as actresses, artists, politicians and working professional women identified troublesome behavior at the workplace. (Starkey, 2019)

At the end of 2018, women in India took part in an extraordinary moment in the feminist history of the country. Connecting themselves to an international sisterhood of survivors, they shared their sexual abuse experiences in social media using the hashtag Me Too. After women shared their painful horror stories, others started using the Twitter handle @IndiaMeToo to offer a platform and streamline for their voices. The majority of the stories involved acquaintance abuse. Women gave their stories on how former boyfriends, men, colleagues, professors, and classmates they once trusted raped them during dates, assaulted them in their sleep, forcibly kissed them, and pretended that they did not understand consent by gaslighting the women. Over a dozen of women stood forward to make allegations against M.J. Akbar, a federal minister, forcing him to resign. He disputed the accusations and then took one of the women to court. Since then, a chilling factor arose when men started lawsuits against women, hoping that it will serve as a warning. The majority of cases of acquaintance sexual assault are not taken seriously by cops and are said to be hard to prove in court since they tend to happen in private areas. Ironically, the male artists, lawyers, entertainers, and journalists have the loudest uproar, having worries that their reputations will be spoiled. (Starkey, 2019)

Zakia Soman the cofounder of the Muslim of Women Organization and an advocator for women’s rights for a long time in India said that this movement has broken the silence. Social media has offered a platform for women to speak up and name their abusers as well as finding a community and solidarity with fellow survivors. (Starkey,2019)

History and Statistics of Sexual Harassment in India

Concrete history of sexual assault in India is scarce due to the lack of reporting, any data collected was usually a soft estimation which now proves highly inaccurate. However, it because of the Me Too movement reporting has increased, and recent statistics help paint a better picture of the society and the role sexually harassment plays within it. Recent statistics by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) state that out of all the major cities, Delhi recorded the highest amount of registered sexual harassment cases with 613. In second was Mumbai with 391 cases which was followed by Kanpur with 162 cases. Having concrete numbers of reported cases allows for the people of India and the world to truly understand the magnitude of harm being done against women. (Sambaraju, 2020)

Lek Ladki Abhiyan, the ministry of health and family welfare in India, has been working to deal with issues facing women and girls of the Maharashtra state. However, they only reported less than 1% of sexual harassment cases in their shelters. This is because political party workers operate such shelters. The chairperson for the Commission of Women in Maharashtra said that the internal committees set up by both private and public sectors do not have the power to act on sexual harassment complaints. Such committee members lack law awareness hence are afraid to take any action against their seniors. The Me Too movement pushed for people to courageously come forward and file formal complaints. The government has been asked to make it a mandatory for corporate sector staff to go through online sexual harassment training to know their rights which is a huge success in favor for women and the ability to report. (Sambaraju, 2020)

A rise in cases of sexual harassment being recorded is a trend in India that has been evident in the last couple of years. Recorded cases rose by 54% between 2014 and 2017. However, there is still a gap in recording. In 2016 Reuters, news agency, reported that in some cities police do not record sexual harassment reports and this is still true today. For sexual assault cases, it was recorded in 2019, that 99% of cases stay unregistered. Even in the age of Me Too, fears have been raised about this movement losing stability against a decline. With cases of prominent women being mishandled, continuous underreporting, and insufficiencies in the Indian law regarding sexual harassment, still makes it difficult for women to speak up. (Sambaraju, 2020)

Religious Implications of MeToo Movement

As a society, India is obsessed with safeguarding its culture that closes the door for women from the structure of power yet makes them the culture’s safe keepers. Women are accountable for protecting the honor of the family while also being accountable for their own dignity. Therefore, they are forced to keep quiet on anything that breaks the woman’s sanctity. Women are discouraged to name their assaulters by the fear of being named as a troublemaker. Moreover, harassment, lack of support, and the experience of attending court sessions to relive the trauma is more taxing to the survivor than the abuser. (Sharma, 2002)

By some religious individuals the Me Too movement goes against the major religious views within society because women are excluded from leadership roles as stated in the early Hindu texts of the Vedas. Women are also considered second-class or even classless under the caste system set up in the Upanishads and have little rights given to them if at all. In favor of the movement it can be argument that women are supposed to be treated with honor and respect as stated in the Manusmrti. While in the Manusmrti strict duties as mother, daughter, wife are given to women it is also stated they are supposed to be cared for, honored, and respected. The negative treatment and attitude towards women ultimately amounts to the diverse number of beliefs in Indian religion. Although, it is understood that most Indians practice Hinduism, this is an umbrella term for a multitude of differing beliefs and traditions that have common rituals and gods. (Rambachan, 2001)

Women in India have been harassed, abused, or often know somebody who is a victim, but still, there is silence because of the taboos linked to religion in the subject of sexual harassment and assault. It calls for a lot of strength among women to report the abuse they have experienced to then be followed by more abuse, the assassination of character, intimidation, shaming of the victim, societal pressure when they report. (Sharma, 2002)

Ramifications following Me Too in India

The Me Too movement gave the women of India a voice like they have never had before but following the rise of the Me Too in India many activists find themselves feeling stuck like their movement has been stalled. Fighting oppressors and a corrupt system, participants in the movement are feeling the push back. Some of the victims have been put on trial for defamation, others have had their cases have been dismissed, yet abusers are given book deals and support my men’s right groups. The Men’s Commission in India calls the Me Too movement a “digital lynching” and men have been unfairly defamed. Rituparna Chatterjee, a women’s rights activist who created the popular @MeTooIndia Twitter account says: “We are living in a dystopian world, where the woman who speaks up are being sued.” However there is still a lot of hope. Women of the India’s Me Too movement are not giving up. They are proud of women coming forward and speaking out on a taboo subject. This movement exposed the limitation in Indian law and activists are still working for more awareness which they hope will lead to legal changes. (Khan, 2019)

Conclusion

Women all over the world are facing sexual harassment and most fear speaking up because of victimization, character assassination, and discrimination in society. The Me Too movement has played a big role in empowering women to report cases of sexual harassment and violence even if it means challenging society’s political and religious views. Empowering women has helped them gain the courage to step forward, to speak up on the problems they face. The Me Too movement has given a platform to women in countries where it has been previously taboo. In India and everywhere else the Me Too movement is just that, a movement, it is ongoing and still seeking the changes women so desperately need while still providing an outlet for those to speak out against their abusers.

References

Khan, F. L., & Pathak, S. (2019, July 29). India's #MeToo Movement, One Year On. NPR. http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2019/07/29/744444673/indias-metoo-movement-one-year-on. 

Rambachan, A. (2001). Chapter 1 . In J. C. Raines & D. C. Maguire (Eds.), What Men Owe to Women: Men's Voices from World Religions. essay, State University of New York Press. 

Sambaraju, R. (2020). “I Would Have Taken This to My Grave, Like Most Women”: Reporting Sexual Harassment during the #MeToo movement in India. Journal of Social Issues, 76(3), 603–631. https://doi.org/10.1111/josi.12391 

Sharma, A. (2002) Women in Indian Religions. Oxford University Press

Smuskiewicz, A. J. (2018, August 13). Me Too Movement . 

Starkey, J. C., Koerber, A., Sternadori, M., & Pitchford, B. (2019). #MeToo Goes Global: Media Framing of Silence Breakers in Four National Settings. Journal of Communication Inquiry, 43(4), 437–461. https://doi.org/10.1177/0196859919865254