#MeToo movement: Women need to make more noise to be heard

Hyderabad: There is loss of livelihood for women who called out sexual offenders in the #MeToo movement that swept through urban India last year, pointed out panellists at the Hyderabad Literary Festival on Friday. The festival is being held at the Hyderabad Public School. 

Singer Chinmayi Sripaada, who used to record six to seven songs a day, does not dub even one song now for the Tamil industry. 

“I have been banned by the Tamil Nadu dubbing union from dubbing for the industry. There is loss of livelihood and this comes after riding on a wave of success with the movie 96,” she said. 

The panel discussion on ‘#MeToo: The way forward’, was moderated by Vasudha Nagaraj, with speakers Shutapa Paul and Sandhya Menon, who spoke of their own experiences of calling out their predators. Agreeing that loss of livelihood for speaking out has been the unfortunate fallout of this courageous act, the two speakers said that due to alternative sources of income and freelancing, they are able to continue to raise their voices. Ms Sripaada added that lyricist Vairamuthu, who she has accused of sexual harassment, is a Padma Sri and Padma Bhushan and will probably also get the Padma Vibhushan as he is extremely powerful. “When I made the accusation, I was told that I was being paid by the BJP due to the caste profile. The issue of women being groped is being linked to caste,” she said. 

She pointed out that people on social media have been making casteist slurs and sometimes even ask “rate per night to sleep with them”. 

Journalist Sandhya Menon said the predators roam around freely and enough noise needs to be made and large numbers have to come out against such behaviour with strong legislation to deter offenders. 

Shutapa Paul, who called out Union minister M.J. Akbar, said, “While men are being rehabilitated, people are trying to whitewash the issue. There is a network of men helping each other out there. The movement was never about women versus men, we need each other.” 

She said she hoped that the accused would give a heartfelt apology as admission of their guilt and truly acknowledge their fault. 

She added that it is difficult to be the first one to speak out. “I had a lot more to lose as my book was coming out. It was a matter of conscience and I had to speak about it,” she said. 

Journalist Sandhya Menon who accused the then resident editor of the Times of India, K.R. Sreenivas, said 11 women came out against him after she spoke of his behaviour. “We bury our stories. The kind of support we need is in huge numbers.”