#MeToo Campaign has pushed India into Era of Digital Mob Lynching
With a Bollywood Actress Alleging Sexual harassment at the hands of another Bollywood actor, the floodgates of #MeToo campaign entered India opening a Pandora’s box. The campaign saw the who’s who of India from every Industry and Sector either alleging, or being accused or giving opinions on the Campaign.
Looking at the way the campaign #MeTooIndia has been taken, has brought Daaman to a conclusion that the campaign has an intent to Malign and has nothing to do with either Justice or Gender Equality or Truth as it claims to be.
The Modus Operandi of the campaign motivates alleged Survivors of Abuse (focusing more on Sexual Abuse) to Name, Shame and Malign an accused of Harassment after many many years. These methodology is detrimental and wrong for any sane society, since:
India has laws around Sexual Harassment i.e. IPC 354 (and subsections) and even IPC 376 (Rape with very very wide ambit) which were edited based on various Knee-Jerk reactions of Government over past many years.
India, as a country, has Women Support Systems like: Ministry of Women and Child Development, National Commission for Women, Mahila Thana, Women Helplines, Crime Against Women Cells, Nirbhaya Center / OSCC (One Stop Crisis Center), Mahila Courts. A system which has a budget allocation of almost 90,000+ crores INR every year from the Taxes paid by Working class (comprising of 75% Males)
Indian Media, which, over years have shown Hyper Sensitivity towards Gender Based Crime and has turned a complete blind eye towards Crime Against Men
India Data Collections agencies like NCRB (National Crime Records Bureau) or NFHS (National Family Health Survey) who only focus on Gender issues / crimes related to women and ignore the other half of the Population
Inspite of all of the above, this campaign makes the accusers use Social media to Malign the names of accused by not using any of the above systems, thus spreading the Hoax that there is no support system for women. This is where the campaign’s real face gets uncovered. Campaign has:
No interest in Justice, else, alleged victims would have been asked to follow the process of Law (which you can’t see in most of the current Social Media Accusations). Even asks accusations done anonymously while naming, shaming, maligning the accused in detail.
Intent to malign accused men and ask them to either apologize or even step down from their positions. Someone apologizes, someone steps down and any action on part of accused is used against him to malign him further using the logic that since he accepts his mistake, he stepped down or that since he is arrogant and powerful even today, he dint step down. Every action of an accused is treated as an action to malign him further
Gender based focus as only alleged Anti Men stories are given all the focus while Men who have been victims of Sexual harassment everywhere are brushed under the carpet.
This is where we reiterate that #MeToo campaign is a Digital Mob Lynching Campaign with only intent to malign Men.
In India, Data Collection agencies have been ignoring Indian Men from every survey as India does not have a “Purush Aayog” or a “National Commission for Men” which means that there is no government or constitutional body to wake up the government that Men are Human and they need to be covered too. As a result, we see Indian Law Making process being misused, abused in the name of Article 15(3) based on Knee Jerk reactions. As a democracy, unfortunately, we have lost our logical and data based decision making and have fallen prey to Anti-Men Agendas from the West. That’s why we do not see any Law Making process basing the need/requirement/drafting based on real data but only based on Media perception or by wrongly terming few Anti-Men groups as Civil Society.
Of the very few data available, below are few snapshots:
Workplace Sexual Harassment: In 2011, ET-Synovate survey is the only inclusive survey ever done on the Workplace Sexual harassment in India. The survey found that of the accused for Sexual harassment by the Employees in India, 68% were Female Accused while only 32% accused were found to be males.
Rape/Sexual Assault: India has NEVER done any report on Rape/Sexual Assault in India. Only indications can be derived from the “Study on Child Abuse: India 2007” report from Ministry of Women and Child Development.
LESS THAN 18 YEARS (CHILD): The said report clearly states that of victims of Child Sexual Assault/Rape 53% are boys and 47% are girls. i.e. Boys are at 6% higher risk than girl to be victims of Child Sexual Assault/Rape.
18 TO 24 YEARS (YOUNG ADULT): The same report also states that of the victims of Young Adult Sexual Assault/Rape in India, 61% of victims were Male i.e. Male are at 22% higher risk of being Sexually Assaulted/Raped than Females
Above also clearly shows that with the increasing age of males, their risk of being Sexually Assaulted/Raped as compared to females, increases from 6% differential to 22% differential
If one goes deep into the study of NFHS (1 to 4) – National Family Health Survey, you will find that there is NO QUESTIONNAIRE in ANY NFHS which covers questions put to male for their Sexual Abuse / Sexual Harassment / Rape / Stalking etc etc.
Even with the above data, no Government, under known pressures, had bothered to even do any unbiased collection of data of situation of Men and thus we witness #MeToo reinforcing the same Anti-Male Hoax.
We, along with our other Brother Organizations have submitted multiple Memorandums to the Government. We wish to pray the same with this Press Release. Our Demands are:
Formation of National Commission for Men or Purush Ayog on immediate basis, in consultation with Men’s Rights Movement of India.
Immediately debar Electronic, Print and Social Media from publishing any naming and maligning of names of accused and complainants so as to leave litigating parties with some dignity and honor to fight their cases.
Strengthening the Defamation law of India so as to provide EQUAL Punishment & Fine in a False Case to the False Accuser as the Accused would have got in a proven True Case. This must not need a separate Defamation Law but should be imbibed in every Law.
To ensure that Principle of Natural Justice (innocent till proven guilty) is well understood by all Citizens.
Scrap all the Gender Biased Laws or make them completely Gender Neutral.
Bring in special Law/Act to protect Accused from Digital Mob Lynching similar to one for Mob Lynching. With examples of Nisha Sharma (2003) case, recent cases of Rohtak Sisters (2014) and even DIG Parasker case, the accused were widely lynched in Digital world when the cases were found to be false.
Daaman, along with other brother organisations is participating in Great Delhi Run on 21st October 2018 to spread the awareness, need of Purush Ayog / National Commission for Men in India on immediate basis. Join us to see the mega awareness drive that we take in this Marathon to wake up India. Join us during the Great Delhi Run.