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#ME TOO MOVEMENT - BY DAYALU SURESHKUMAR

INTRODUCTION 
The #Me Too movement is a movement against sexual harassment and assault where people publicize allegations of sex crimes committed by powerful men. This movement was first voiced out on social media in 2006 on Myspace social network by the sexual harassment survivor and social activist Tarana Burke. Later on 2017, it became prominent and virally spread as a hashtag on social media. On October 15, 2017 Actress Alyssa Milano tweeted “If you’ve been sexually harassed or assaulted write ‘me too’ as a reply to this tweet.” More than 66,000 users replied #Me Too to her tweet of being harassed and assaulted. The ultimate purpose of this #Me Too movement was to empower women through empathy and solidarity through strength in numbers, especially young and vulnerable women, by visibly demonstrating how many women have survived sexual assault and harassment, especially in the workplace.
DEFINITION
The Me Too movement is mainly concerned with two types of acts: Sexual harassment and Sexual assault. According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Sexual harassment consists of “unwelcome sexual advances, request for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature in workplace or learning environment.” Sexual assault is also called sexual abuse. It is the use of force, coercion, or an imbalance of power to make a person engage in sexual activity without their consent.
ME TOO MOVEMENT IN INDIA
Our Indian culture has always been strong on family values and aggregate lifestyle, factors like education and financial independence have resulted in the breakdown of joint families to more independent nuclear households. Urban middle-class values are changing with young individuals all over the world becoming more aware of the feminist trends as opposed to the previous generations. While the earlier generations were scared of breaking free from already existing norms and values, whereas the current generation is a lot more free thinking and outspoken. The #Me too movement began as a hashtag on Twitter in 2017 and now India is having a #Me too movement of its own engulfing many famous personalities. Inspired by the International campaign against sexual harassment and assault in the workplace, women across the spectrum opened up and shared their stories about abuse by men in powerful positions. It began in October 2018, when actress Tanushree Dutta accused actor Nana patekar of sexual harassment while shooting for the film on 2008. This has led many women in the news media, Indian films and even within the government to speak out and bring allegations of sexual harassment against a number of perpetrators. Sexual harassment is commonly referred by the term Eve-Teasing which is an act verbally, or by making vulgar gestures or by winking, whistling or staring, in public places. The Hon’ble supreme court in the case of Vishakha & ors vs. State of Rajasthan ((1997) 6 SCC 241) has given the guidelines for sexual harassment in workplace. Despite the risk alienations, women have chosen to speak up in social media. Historically, women’s access to resources has been dependent on men through associations like marriage and consanguity, putting women in competition with each other. Today, women are coming out in support of other women breaking the stereotype that women never support each other. The #Me Too movement is a major example of this change. The silence of women survivors of sexual harassment and assault shows the failure of the state machinery to address their concerns. It took over 10 years for actress Tanushree Dutta to take courage to open up against the sexual harassment of her Co-star. The #Me Too movement that began in social media provided women a platform to report their grievances. It also gave women a sense of safety by being anonymous while reporting their cases and support who wanted to report their incidents but couldn’t. 
LEGAL CONSEQUENCES OF ME TOO MOVEMENT
The world is currently witnessing a massive awakening with the #Me Too movement with India being at the top most rank as per report of Google trends. Sexual harassment at workplace is a wild and deep rooted characteristic of patriarchy. Fingers have been pointed towards famous personalities especially those who are high profile in media and entertainment industry. The recent allegations of sexual harassment by several women across professions against their male counterparts have invoked a debate in the society regarding the need for their safety against sexual harassment. Safety of women in workplace is very important to enable more women to join workforce and attain economic independence. In 2013, Indian legislature enacted a law for protection of women against sexual harassment at the workplace based on the guidelines framed by the Hon’ble supreme court in the landmark judgment Vishakha &ors vs. State of Rajasthan as “the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 (POSH), aims at preventing such sexual harassment at first instance and in case such harassment does occur. It provides for efficient redressal of complaints by setting up Internal Complaint Committee (ICC) and providing compensation and rehabilitation to the victim. It further mandates that employers must form an internal Complaints Committee and in failure to set up such committee leads to a monetary penalty of Rs.50,000 under section 26(1) of the POSH Act. 
. COMPLAINT OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT- 
Under section- 9 of the POSH act, an aggrieved women is required to submit a written complaint alleging sexual harassment at her workplace within three months from the date of the incident. This complaint should be addressed to the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) set up by the organization to inquire into the merits of the allegations. Further, ICC will forward the complaint to police for action under criminal law. POSH specifies a time period of 90 days to complete such inquiry. Section-12 of the POSH Act provides that at the request of the complainant, the ICC may recommend to employer to provide interim measures such as transferring the aggrieved woman to any other workplace and granting leave in addition to her regular leave. Section-16 of the POSH Act protects the confidentiality of the complainant. In case the victim is not satisfied with the investigation procedure carried out by ICC, she can move to High Court by way of a writ petition under article 226 of the constitution of India and the concerned High Court can issue judicial directions to ICC. In 2018, The Ministry of Women & Child Development launched the SHE-Box that stands for Sexual Harassment Electronics Box, an online platform for reporting complaints of Sexual Harassment.
·   PENALISATION UNDER CRIMINAL LAW-
The penalization and sentencing of the offender is solely prescribed under criminal law. Indian Penal Code, 1860 (Act No.XLV OF 1860) lists offences under various heads and punishment related to them. The process of complaint, inquiry, investigation, arrest, bail etc are governed by Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (Act 2 of 1974) and the Evidence Act Act,1872 (Act 1 of 1870) sets out procedure for producing evidence in the court of law. An amendment in IPC was duly made in 2013, giving aggrieved women a platform to seek stringent punishment for their harassers for a range of sexual harassment related incidents. IPC provides a rigorous punishment upto 3 years for sexual harassment crimes. In addition, crimes such as ‘use of criminal force to women with intent to disrobe’, ‘voyeurism’ and ‘stalking’ are now punishable under IPC with imprisonment varying from one to seven years depending on the nature of harassment. Sexual harassment is a cognizable offence and to seek criminal remedy, the victim has to file an FIR under Section-354A of IPC in the nearest police station at her residence or at any convenient place of her choice. Alternatively, a private complaint can also be filed before judicial magistrate or Metropolitan magistrate under Section-156(3) r/w Section 190 of CrPC, who may direct the police to register an FIR. After the enactment of the Information Technology Act, 2000 (Act 21 of 2000), social media evidence are considered to be a substantive piece of evidence and legally admissible in the court of law under section 65B of The Evidence Act, 1872. However it requires the attestant of the person legally producing them as permissible evidence.
.  VIOLATION OF CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS
Before the eyes of law, women’s fundamental right to live with dignity is violated under article 21 of constitution of India. Article-15 expressly prohibits discrimination on the grounds of sex in employment related opportunities. The offence of sexual harassment violates Right to equality for women under article 14 and freedom to practice any profession or occupation guaranteed under article 19(1) (g). Article 39A provides that State shall provide equal justice and free legal aid. Section 12 of the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987 provides that every victim of an offence entitled for free legal services irrespective of her social or economic conditions.
CRITICISM AGAINST ME TOO MOVEMENT
As the #Me Too movement gave a rise in India in 2018, several women have bravely shared their ordeal of how they suffered sexual harassment at the hands of powerful men. However, not everyone has taken well to this online outrage and many people have come forth to criticise the movement. It was criticised as ‘Toxic Feminism’. This movement is being criticised that women are misusing their rights by defaming men by stating false allegations against them and it affects men’s reputation and career. 
CONCLUSION
#Me Too movement is a very significant campaign. It’s all about spreading awareness and giving strength to women, to raise their voice against these crucial acts. Even after the enactment of Sexual Harassment of Women in Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 women are being harassed and are not having courage to speak out. This movement has given a major challenge to encourage women to come out and share their experiences. Social media is wide platform which will enable the victim to gather enough support which will eventually force the authorities to act fairly and quickly. Now we are in 20th century, women who are victims of Sexual Harassment should come forward and complain about the incident immediately at the time of its occurrence and the wrong doers must be duly punished. The fear of not being believed, the fear of being under pressure to withhold or withdraw complaints, the fear of what others will think these have all been diminished by the outpouring of stories and solidarity, and freedom from fear is always a game changer. 

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