NEW DELHI -- Indian actresses and writers have flooded social media in recent days with allegations of sexual harassment and assault, releasing pent-up frustration with a law that was lauded internationally but that critics say has done little to change the status quo in the world's largest democracy.
"People using social media to articulate their complaints should be recognized in the context of failure. The system has in effect failed us, has failed women," T.K. Rajalakshmi, the president of the Indian Women's Press Corps, said in a panel discussion Thursday in New Delhi.
The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act of 2013 holds Indian workplaces liable for sexual harassment, and prescribes a system for investigating and redressing complaints. Employers must create committees that are at least 50 percent women, presided over by a woman and with one external expert, to process complaints. The law builds on the landmark 1997 Vishakha case, in which India's Supreme Court held that sexual harassment at work violated a woman's constitutional right to equality.
But nearly five years since the law came into effect, many managers and employees are not aware of it. Those who are rarely implement it fully, in part because of the enormous taboo in India of discussing anything related to sex, said Naina Kapur, the attorney who argued the Vishakha case before the Supreme Court.
"Every time I get a call it's after the event has happened. It's supposed to be effectively communicated and it hasn't been," Kapur said, adding that in India, "as women get more into the marketplace and the workplace, their experience of sex harassment and violence is a growing area of concern but it's not being heard."
Based on the nonstop TV coverage, alleged victims are making themselves heard on social media, bypassing completely the protocol created by the 2013 law.
The social media storm began in September, when former Bollywood actress Tanushree Dutta spoke to several Indian TV news channels about her frustration with a fruitless police complaint she filed in 2008 against actor Nana Patekar for alleged sexual harassment on a Mumbai movie set.
Dutta said that after Patekar groped her during a dance routine, she fled the set and a mob surrounded her car, smashed the windshield and trapped her inside.
Patekar has denied the allegations.
Mumbai police on Thursday said they had opened an investigation into Patekar after Dutta filed a fresh complaint, accusing him of violating two sections of the Indian Penal Code related to offending a woman's modesty. If found guilty, the maximum penalty is two years in prison.
On Oct. 4, Mumbai comedy group AIB announced that it had decided to de-list every video featuring former member Utsav Chakraborty, whom women had condemned on social media for alleged sexual harassment.
On Sunday, an unnamed former employee at Phantom Films writing in the Huffington Post described allegations she had made in 2015 against one of the company's partners, director Vikas Bahl, whom she said behaved inappropriately during a trip to Goa.
The next day, company partners Anurag Kashyap and Vikramaditya Motwane dissolved Phantom Films. Bahl has filed an intent to sue his former partners for defamation.
On Monday, journalist Sandhya Menon shared screenshots of her conversation with two women claiming that actor Rajat Kapoor harassed them over the phone.
Kapoor apologized on Twitter if he had "slipped and through my actions or words caused pain or hurt."
That same day, former TV producer, director and writer Vinta Nanda said on Facebook and in TV interviews that she was raped 19 years ago by actor Alok Nath.
Nath said in a TV interview that he neither denied or agreed with the allegations. "It must have happened, but someone else would have done it," Nath said.
TV actress Sandy Mridul expressed her support for Nanda in a Tweet. Fellow TV actress Deepika Amin followed on Twitter: "Everyone in the industry knows that #AlokNath is an obnoxious drunkard who harasses women."
On Wednesday, actor and heavyweight Bollywood producer Aamir Khan and his wife Kiran Rao put out a statement saying they were "committed to doing any and everything to make our film industry a safe and happy one to work in." In a Tweet, Khan said they were about to begin work with someone who had been accused of sexual misconduct and that the matter was pending in court.
Perhaps the most startling development has been the string of accusations against Junior External Affairs Minister M.J. Akbar. In less than a week, at least nine women journalists have accused Akbar of sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior when he was a newspaper editor in Kolkata and Delhi. Neither Akbar nor the ministry has responded.
Information for this article was contributed by Ashok Sharma of The Associated Press.
A Section on 10/12/2018