Corporates are supposed to deal with complaints of harassment according to the provisions of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, or POSH Act, 2013. The Act mandates that employers form an internal complaints committee (ICC) presided over by a senior woman employee to consider such issues. But according to a survey by the Indian National Bar Association in 2017, 69% of the 6,047 respondents did not file a complaint with the ICC due to fear of retaliation and subsequent repercussions. “I could perceive that some of these cases were swept under the carpet in some companies... zero tolerance should be absolutely zero,” says a senior executive on condition of anonymity.

But the #MeToo movement is changing that. Of the more than 130 people named in an online document that lists #MeToo cases in India, some are men who hold or have held senior positions in various organisations, or are celebrities. Many victims in these cases chose to be silent all these years because of the celebrity status of the men. A prominent name on the list is M.J. Akbar, former editor and former Union minister of state for external affairs. Akbar, who quit office in view of the allegations, has filed a case of criminal defamation against journalist Priya Ramani, who was the first to call him out.

However, Pai, former head of human resources and chief financial officer at Infosys, thinks that public shaming is not the way to deal with sexual harassment at the workplace. “But the fact that we did not see companies question these social media allegations shows that there was no process in place to report such cases when these offences had taken place,” he says.

“Such old allegations will be contested in the courts of law,” Pai points out.

There are legal hurdles as well. Social media narratives cannot be deemed formal complaints. Many of the #MeTooIndia cases involve people who used to work with the victims at some point in their careers. The ICC can act only on complaints involving respondents and complainants, who are current employees, provided the reported incident took place at the workplace or while on an official duty off-site, and was registered within three months from the date of the incident (or the last incident in the case of serial offences).

#MeToo

#MeToo Era: Time of reckoning

From #Metoo to #Virushka, India on Instagram in 2018