The Others Too

The MeToo campaign comes at a time when women are being courted for electoral gains. Is it good or bad?

- Richard Mahapatra

PEOPLE ARE talking about the MeToo campaign in unexpected places: In tea stalls in a quaint district in Odisha, in the drawing room of a lower middle-class patriarchal family in Delhi, among anganwadi workers and in the corridors of maternity wards. Though there is a growing perception of India’s MeToo campaign as being very elitist and limited to just a few sectors like media and films, the resonance of the campaign in places mentioned above indicates something else.

In 2012, the gang rape of a 23-year-old girl— named Nirbhaya by the media—in a moving bus in New Delhi triggered nationwide protests and called for the safety and status of women in the country. In a way one could argue that the MeToo campaign is an evolved form of the protests that started in 2012. Individuals are going public on harassment, feeling empowered and generating wider support. Those discounting this campaign should take note of the changing content and contour of the role of women in contemporary India.