Her film career had gone in the wink of an eye. She fought what turned out to be a losing battle against her tormentor and had to flee the country. There was another fight ahead — depression. She fought that, taking 10 long years to recuperate. Tanushree Dutta’s revelations about sexual harassment at the hands of award-winning actor Nana Patekar on the sets of “Horn OK Pleassss” kicked off the #MeToo movement in India, forcing several Indian incarnations of Hollywood movie Mogul Harvey Weinstein to run for cover. The 'horn' she sounded after all these years, reverberated across the entertainment and media industries that saw several skeletons tumbling out of the closets.

The patriarchal mindset of working spaces has seen men in powerful positions consider the organisation as their fiefdom and employees, lower in the hierarchy, their serfs. For women colleagues, the concern has been altogether different. Men in positions of power have often turned into sexual predators – targeting women with an inappropriate look, lewd language, an intimate touch, and even rape.

In the past one week, several heads started rolling after women found Twitter as a platform to speak out, to name and shame tormentors, men who used their position to first harass women and then threatened them into silence. They long-suffering victims started narrating their stories, some decades old. Other women came out supporting them with their own experiences and corroborating the incidents. All these years, the alleged perpetrators have been roaming free in their fiefdoms, confident no one would out them.

Alok Nath, the affable fatherly figure of yesteryear TV serials, Rajat Kapoor, standup comedian Utsav Chakraborthy, writer Chetan Bhagat, film director Vikas Bahl, producer Gaurang Doshi. The celebrity list is growing day-by-day. Women in media too took to Twitter and many tall figures, including BJP minister and former editor of The Asian Age MJ Akbar, chief of bureau and political editor of Hindustan Times Prashant Jha, founder editor of The Wire, Sidharth Bhatia, founder of DNA Gautam Adhikari, Times of India Hyderabad resident editor KR Sreenivas and Mayank Jain of Business Standard, were among those who faced grave allegations. Regional film and media personalities were not spared, as a steady line of women, came forward with stories of sexual harassment at the workplace and the crass abuse of power to silence them.

Many of them apologised, some stepped down from their positions while some are still in the denial mode. Industry forums have started inquiries against those named. The Editors Guild has asked media organisations to conduct unbiased investigation. The Cine and TV Artists’ Association assured action would be taken against Alok Nath and the Maharashtra women’s panel issued notices to Nana Patekar and others involved in Tanushree Dutta case.

Emboldened by others, given a voice at last in the system, in the space vacated by retreating sexual predators, women have stepped up to narrate their experiences. They have not been defensive. Some have insisted that they do not want to be seen as victims. They want the tormentors to be forced out of their safe havens, dragged to the town square and delivered justice. The brute force that sexual predators at the workplace used to subjugate women, at all times protected by the trappings of power and their underlings – some of whom, sickeningly enough, were women – was now being met with power of a different kind.

In the past one week, social media donned a new role of grievance redressal. As per our legal structure, any allegation has to be investigated first and the accused should be given a chance to present his point before pronouncing the judgment. A social media platform is not a judicial platform; it just exposes the accused and by doing so, the punishment is pronounced even before trial. It does not have any system to distinguish between truth and falsehood. Hence, it can also become an easy platform for malicious slander.

In the #MeToo campaign, many women who used this platform, did not have any mechanism in their workplaces to check the advances of a powerful predator. These are women who have either left the organisation, switched careers or achieved a certain stature in their career which provides them some immunity against repercussions. Others still will not risk their job and career by speaking out. They know that it would be a losing battle against the powerful and influential superior. She will be discriminated against in terms of opportunities and career growth.

Many women fear that the campaign will have repercussions once the media focus shifts to other events. Organisations, especially headed by men, may keep women at arm’s length. Gender diversity and inclusiveness at the workplace are not ornamental words used during HR summits. Increasing participation of women in labour force to the same level as men can boost India’s GDP by 27 per cent, finds a paper presented at the World Economic Forum. So organisations should take necessary steps to ensure the safety of women at the workplace so that no one will have to resort to a social media platform for justice.

As per the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, every employer is required to constitute an Internal Complaints Committee at each office or branch with 10 or more employees. The complaints committees have the powers of civil courts for gathering evidence. The Act prescribes penalties for employers who do not comply with the provisions of the Act. They are punishable with a fine of up to Rs 50,000. Repeated violations may lead to higher penalties and cancellation of licence or registration to conduct business. However, very few organisations have such committees in place.

Organisations also have to ensure that the committee has people with high integrity to take a stand against those in powerful positions. The job should not end with providing justice to the aggrieved; they also have to ensure that the complainant is not discriminated against in terms of opportunities and career growth.

Gender sensitisation programmes in offices are prescribed by the legislation. Participation of every employee of the organisation should be mandated for such programmes. Further, usage of surveillance equipments like CCTV cameras should become a must in offices. Women should be encouraged to record and document conversations and actions which cross the limits of decency. These will augment speedy investigation and more accurate judgements.

#MeToo has to be taken as an eye-opener to put in place necessary changes in the system so that women need not join another such campaign for justice.