It is been years under this patriarchal society women are struggling, they are not given equal rights as comparison to the males of the society, they are exploited in each and every aspects of life starting from their birth (female foeticide) to sexual harassment. Women are facing gender discrimination which affects many aspects in the lives of women from career development and progress to mental health disorders. Even though there are laws to protect women against rape, dowry and adultery but these are hardly able to put halt to the exploitations faced by women due to their improper implementations and execution and also many times women are not able to express the wrong done to them.
To fight against all these exploitations faced by women since a long time many movements are started, one such of them is “me too” movement, which was founded in 2006 to help survivors of sexual violence, particularly Black women and girls, and other young women of colour from low wealth communities, find path way to healing.
Me too movement was founded by Tarana Burke but began as a much-needed phenomenon in October 2017 as a hashtag started by American actress Alyssa Milano who shared her story of sexual assault against Harvey Weinstein.
It didn’t came to India immediately but in late 2018 in parts of Indian society including government, media and the Bollywood film industry. It began gaining prominence in India with the increasing popularity of the international movement against sexual harassment of women in the workplace or in other places. Later it gathered sharp momentum in October 2018 in the entertainment industry of Bollywood, centred in Mumbai, when actress Tanushree Dutta accused Nana Patekar of sexual harassment. This encouraged many other women in the news media, Indian films, and even within government to raise their voice against what had happened to them.
The movement has provided platform to elite or upper and up to some extent to middle class women to raise their voice against sexual harassment but it had failed to transcend from urban areas and reach the rural population. The movement has also failed to include in it voices of the less privileged of women employed in unorganised sector. It started to influence as #metoo on social media which is hardly accessible to lower or unprivileged classes.
Many activists have tried to spread awareness about this campaign because irrespective of class and gender everyone deserves justice but has failed to do so if we look at bigger picture in spite of this, we shouldn’t forget small changes makes big difference. We need to keep trying to put halt to gender based violence, some laws have been revised and worked upon to make the world a better place to live in for all of us.
