The recent wave of revelations about sexual harassment in the entertainment and news media industry in India, popularly called the #MeToo moment has made one thing clear: there's a dearth of listening skills and empathy. There is anguish, there is pain, there is hurt and most of all, there is anger. The time has finally arrived to heed these voices, and with understanding.
Over September and October, women like actor Tanushree Dutta, script writer and film producer Vinita Nanda and journalist Priya Ramani publicly shared their stories of sexual harassment and sexual assault by powerful men in the entertainment and media industry. While Dutta described her ordeal on a film set in 2008, Nanda and Ramani made their revelations about rape and sexual harassment on social media, initially leaving their harassers unnamed but with clues to their identities, which became public soon thereafter. These public disclosures have emboldened women to come out with their experiences, in a veritable flood of stories of humiliation, violence and abuse of power in the course of their work. Spurred by the flood of allegations, filmmaker Nishtha Jain in her Facebook post revealed incidents of sexual harassment, stalking and bullying by senior journalist Vinod Dua more than 25 years ago.