(FREE) UPSC Current Affairs 2024 PDF

HE GIST of Editorial for UPSC Exams : 09 November 2018 (What next after MeToo?)

What next after MeToo?

Mains Paper 1: Society
Prelims level: MeToo
Mains level: Role of women and women's organization

Context

Naming and shaming powerful men in the #MeToo campaign is in many ways a revolutionary act.
The truth about most was known, spoken in whispers, but not to their face.
Now that omerta has been broken by some intrepid women, there’s a palpable sense of power and possibility.

Moment of change

Revolutions are by definition anarchic, as they are aimed against those who make and enforce the rules.
So it has been with #MeToo.
Men are named, sometimes anonymously, and the naming itself requires punitive action to be taken against them. There isn’t really any room for discussion on context or degree of culpability.
Some have raised questions about due process, and the response has been, somewhat reasonably, that due process has failed.
It is true that, arguing for due process when due process has failed feels a bit like batting for status quo.
#MeToo despite its limitations is unreservedly a good development.

What next?

The #MeToo movement is more than just outing powerful men, it is about shifting the balance of power between men and women, transferring the punitive aspects shame, denial of work opportunities from the victim to the perpetrator.
It is about ending impunity embedded in our social construct by shaping new social mores.
This is and has to be a collective effort, and it is important for the #MeToo movement to have these discussions.
There are two broad questions which require discussion.
First, what should constitute sexual harassment?
Second, when and how should the state and other institutional mechanisms come into play?
There is no ambiguity that any form of coercion is wrong and should engender exemplary punitive consequences. But what about social awkwardness?
What about behavioural conflicts arising out of differential expectations in societies in transition? Staring, telling risqué jokes, crude propositioning can be as much about social awkwardness as abuse of power. It’s not that such behaviour is not inappropriate or wrong, but we should pause and think about the consequences of bringing in state or institutional power to penalise transitional behaviours in personal interactions.
India as a society is transitioning rapidly, and people with widely different understandings of acceptable social mores coexist without having had time to acclimatise.
In a study on sexual harassment by the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) in Delhi University, we found that one in four girls reported sexual harassment. In this, by far most instances related to staring, crude comments, etc.
One conversation with two very articulate and urbane female students went quickly from young men staring and making women uncomfortable to an anti-reservation tirade for allowing university spaces to be allegedly overtaken by crude lower-caste rural men.
As a society we can frame this situation as gender/caste/class antagonism or of managing inevitable conflicts in transitional societies.
The institutional response in the former conception will be regulatory and punitive, the latter will be more about defining mores of acceptable behaviour and education.

Concerns about state power

There are legitimate concerns with bringing in state power to penalise transitional behaviours.
The response is often too heavy-handed, and second, it makes social reform and gender relations too antagonistic.
Section 354 of the Indian Penal Code defines sexual harassment as “physical contact, advances of unwelcome and explicit sexual overtures” but also “making sexually coloured remarks”.
The conviction rates under legal processes are extremely low but surely even conceptually, we don’t want to send people to jail for telling crude jokes.

Way forward

Institutionally too, it is important to expand the discourse to talk about the measures required to create more gender-neutral spaces while retaining room for graduated levels of punishment.
Censure, delayed or reduced work opportunities, suspension and firing are all forms of regulating inappropriate behavior.
Impunity exists in a social construct.
Till now, due process did not work because the social context was skewed in favour of marauding men.
However, the long battle waged by generations of strong women before and the courage of many women today together is forcing the social context to change.
It is important to use this moment to institutionalise and craft a new, more effective due process.
That should be #MeToo’s lasting legacy.

Online Coaching for UPSC PRE Exam

General Studies Pre. Cum Mains Study Materials

Prelims Questions:

Q.1) Consider the following statements about Kishori Shakti Yojana:
1. It aims to improve the nutritional, health and development status of adolescent girls.
2. It targets both school going and out of school adolescent girls.
3. It is implemented as a component of Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS).
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 1 and 3 only
(c) 2 and 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3
Answer: D