Does government have a plan to manage #metooindia movement or will it become a social disaster?

We are in the middle of #MeTooIndia storm. A Storm that took a lot of powerful people unawares. People who never thought that Indian Woman, #Savitri would come out in the open and speak about the harassment that she had faced and shame the harasser on a social platform.

If you can look few years into the future you will realize that #MeTooIndia is a revolution, almost as it was destined that #Indian woman would awaken on so and so date. I pretend what has happened is normal but even I am shocked that these woman have spoken out in-spite of knowing that the #Indian society may label them & for years people will use this incident to attack them. Society has been questioning woman for 1000s of years even at the time of Lord Ram a respectable woman of high society had to pass the Agni Pariksha (Test of Fire) to prove she was chaste and pure. Indian society will not change overnight but the process of change has been triggered with a bang! At this time  it is important that people who believe in equality should respect these woman, show empathy and be grateful to them for exposing the dangerous predators who were in hiding in our society for so long. If you have any doubt put yourself or your family member in her position and try to live the experience in your imagination. It is horrifying particularly because the perpetrators were and still are influential people who could have ruined their careers and life forever.  

     
Today the main questions before #India is how are we going to handle the #MeTooIndia ?

• Is there a process to handle #MeTooIndia type of cases? 
• Does the police and judiciary have any guidelines to handle such cases?
• What steps have to be taken after naming and shaming? 
• How is society going to handle it? 
• How is government going to handle it? 
• Which government body will overlook the #MeTooIndia ?
• What needs to be done so that today's woman does not have to wait for next #MeTooIndia

When woman decides to speak about harassment or abuse that happened 20 yrs back it is almost impossible to get witness and proof of the incident and that is advantage abuser. Government machinery seems to be paralyzed and indecisive . There seems to be no direction to the movement because it is a social-network based movement and no organization has any framework for handling such cases. Government has to support the movement and define a structure and process for handling such cases. The NCW (National Commission For Woman) which is a government body and under guidance of the government and eminent #SupremeCourt judges it should define a process to handle these cases that are broadcast over social network, electronic media, news papers or even if the case is registered in police station. If there is no defined process social media will continue to be become platform of verbal massacre and the victims will never get justice.

Here is what I think and needs to be done to have a structured approach to handle #MeTooIndia cases

1. Once a victim has spoken out of a old harassment case she should  approach NCW with a written statement  or log a police complaint
2. NCW should provide legal assistance to the victim who cannot afford a lawyer
3. NCW should categorize the case and should have authority to advice the employer of the accused to sack the employee particularly those in influential positions
4. NCW should also have guidelines and to identify and handle false cases
5. NCW should form a dynamic panel of renowned experts with authority to filter false or baseless claims based on the set guidelines
6. NCW should have the authority and responsibility to give clean chit to the people who are found to were wrongly accused y the legal process or their experts panel

The #MeTooIndia campaign which has now become a social movement is also a social awakening and has to be managed responsibly. We should be ready to see few false accusations under the #MeTooIndia campaign. And this is the reason why I think a framework to handle the genuine as well as false cases has to be in place because one false claim by some mischievous person will torpedo the entire movement and damage the remaining genuine cases of harassment. I shiver when I think what would happen if the genuine cases are not given justice because of one false claim. I believe it is responsibility of the government to ensure that social justice is delivered in a fair and transparent manner. If the government and its institutions don't give direction to the movement it will inflict a huge irreparable loss to the #Indian society. I hope the law makers are aware of this tsunami and are already working on defining a framework to handle it. This is the biggest #revolution of my lifetime and I am so happy we will be weaning out the predators from the society and at the same time creating a deterrent. I wish all the best to the #MeTooIndia and #MeToo movement.