#WeMenMatters

Change is the only constant thing in this world. We experience various things at every stage of our life. We all believe in expressing our feelings to our loved ones and while we express the same, we expect them to acknowledge it and all that we look forward to hear from our loved ones is Me Too. Off late, the word “MeToo” has been alarming as it has a deeper meaning to it. The #MeToo campaign has allowed individuals to express their experiences of sexual abuse which were covered up under the years of silence. It has also allowed individuals and our society to reflect on our values and challenge those who believed in imposing a silent culture through their authoritative actions. In order to enable a safe working environment for women, the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act and the Rules also known as The POSH ACT, has been passed by the Ministry of Women and Child Welfare, in the year 2013. POSH as a subject is vast and it covers the smallest of the things of how a woman feels, her comfort at workplace, gives a woman courage to be vocal about her experiences and which in turn forces the administrators or the people in charge to investigate the grievance and begin the process of redress.

In my journey of Human Resources, I have had a chance to witness a few cases under the POSH Act as I was appointed as the Internal Committee Member (earlier knows as ICC – Internal Complaints Committee) in my organisation. I remember handling a few sensitive cases that made me believe that every situation has its Pro’s and Con’s. While a woman gets her right to express her feelings and be vocal about her experience, it has been observed that this campaign has allowed the system to change their belief and help individuals fight the situation better by a tremendous support from everyone. The vulnerabilities of women and her fragility is exploited to get a sexual advantage and due to the societal pressure, women are scared and choose to either let go or live with the situation. Not many women find the comfort to talk about themselves. However, I am glad to see a change in the way women are thinking today. They have become stronger and vocal about their needs. Their value system has changed where they believe in gender equality and calling out such behaviors which will help us have a gender-neutral society. 

While handling the sexual harassment cases, I believed in the change that women have seen but at the same time I also believe that we should consider the Men’s Rights. Not always a man is wrong. One allegation is enough to destroy a man’s life and I truly believe that its important to also look at this from the man’s side too. A few women have been taking the #MeToo campaign in their own comforting way. All they have been doing is putting just one allegation to get what they want – be it a hefty pay check, a position in the company or just friends with benefits.

I remember those Women’s Days celebrations in my organisation and how the men worked hard to make that day so special for all of us. Well in today’s time I feel proud to see women talking about Men’s Rights. Its high time we work towards the men’s well-being and support them too. I am happy to be a part of a men’s well-being page called “Purusharth” founded by Sneha Kala – an expert relationship coach for men’s well-being and a Government empanelled resource for POSH. While we always believed in the traditional way of looking at such a situation where a woman can be vocal and claim for her rights and the man was always found guilty until we saw some strong messages put across in movies like Aitraaz. As per the POSH law, the definition of the victim is defined but the specification of a respondent is not defined. Having said that, if a woman is harassed, it is presumed that it is a man who is at fault. It is important for us to think from an intention and a crime-based thought process rather than thinking from a gender perspective way. Hence, I truly feel that the youth of our country should be taught Gender Equality which should mean Equal rights for Men & Women. I loved this quote I read – “I Support Equal Rights - If You Can’t Deal With That, I Can’t Deal With You”. What do you feel?