India is setting up a judicial bench to hold public hearings on #MeToo cases

• As more and more cases of sexual harassments in India have come to light through the #MeToo movement, the Indian government is setting up a 4-judge bench to address them.
• Maneka Gandhi has also asked for extending the statute of limitations for reporting harassment to be increased to 10-15 years rather than just 3 months.
  
• The ministry has also set up alternative methods of registering a complaint, in case victims don’t want to reach out to their respective Internal Complaints Committees.

The #MeToo movement in India seems to finally be tipping towards action with the Maneka Gandhi, the minister of Women & Child Development, stating that public hearings will be conducted to hear these cases of sexual assault and harassment.


A bench of four retired judges will be put in place by the ministry to hear out the cases that have surfaced during the #MeToo movement. The ministry’s also set up a dedicated portal for women to make their complaints, in case they don’t want to go to the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC), called ‘She-Box’.

According to the notice by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, complainants can also reach out via email or tweet directly using the hashtag #HelpMeWCD.


Gandhi’s also written to the law ministry to increase the time for reporting sexual assault to 10-15 years later. Currently, India’s laws against sexual harassment entailed in the POSH Act only allow victims to report harassment within 3 months of it happening. She added that “You will always remember the person who did it...Anger at sexual molestation never goes away.”


The movement in India was started by a female stand up comedian, who accused Utsav Chakraborty of sending across unsolicited photos of his genitals. A frequent collaborator with All India Bakchod (AIB), India’s prominent comic collective, Chakraborty was fired. Even Tanmay Bhat, the CEO of AIB, stepped down in lieu of inaction despite knowing about the events that had transgressed.

A number of women have spoken up there after calling out many eminent Bollywood personalities, including Sajid Khan, Subhash Ghai, Nana Patekar and Alok Nath, the supposed Babuji (elder) in the industry. Allegations have also been levelled against the junior minister at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the political editor at Hindustan Times and a senior Tata Motors executive.