History is witness to the fact that women who report sexual abuse in India face backlash. From Bollywood actress to students and laborers, many victims have faced criticism for raising their voices against sexual harassment time and again. To add to the list of petty things that women face after such crimes, a case from NIFT Hyderabad came to light recently.
The organization fired 56 female housekeeping employees, allegedly, for complaining against sexual harassment. This resulted in a national outrage with people protesting on the streets against NIFT. According to NDTV, following the indignation from people all over the country, NIFT has reinstated the employees.
They have restored the contract with the manpower agency that employs the staff and asked them to rejoin work. The NIFT management has however asked the agency to replace the old employees and recruit new people as the contract of the existing staff ends in June.
One of the women protesters also alleged that the management was trying to silence them by sacking them. She said they would continue the protest till stenographer D Srinivas Reddy, who was accused of sexual harassment by four women was punished.
The woman had also filed a complaint against Reddy in October. But no action was taken as the police allegedly suspected that some women were making false allegations against the management after they were pulled up for their poor performance.
After neither the NIFT authorities nor the police took a call against Reddy, the women housekeeping staff joined hands to stage a protest against the same on Monday at Madhapur police station. After the protest, NIFT ended its contract with the manpower agency through which the women employees were sourced.
The decision of NIFT to fire all the women who protested against sexual harassment did not go well with the people. They have been calling out the management on social media.
Fucked up. NIFT Hyderabad would rather fire 56 women than investigate the one man they all said was harassing them: https://t.co/OdlsYRAtLO
— Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan (@reddymadhavan) June 19, 2019
So NIFT, Hyderabad fired 56 women to protect one man, an alleged sexual harasser? https://t.co/UcnOHTG4aa pic.twitter.com/vjDnCnFxX8
— Anwesha Ganguly (@gangoogly) June 18, 2019
56. Please let this number be etched in your brain. 56 women’s complaint against one man. All of the women have been fired. The man continues to teach. 56 women’s word is also not enough against a man’s word in our country. https://t.co/jKNvUd9opV
— #MeTooIndia (@IndiaMeToo) June 18, 2019
56 women housekeeping staff – yes, 56 – who complained of sexual harassment against a #NIFT employee have been asked to leave, the accused continues in his job. And then people ask why women do not file official complaints! THIS is why. #MeToo #Avalkoppamhttps://t.co/l0Gqs0txbh
— Anna MM Vetticad (@annavetticad) June 18, 2019
As soon as NIFT decided to reinstate all 56 female workers, Twitter was flooded with reactions from all over the country:
Wow hell yea!!!! Congrats ladies!!
— Anoo Bhuyan (@AnooBhu) June 20, 2019
Great news
— Subhashini Ali (@SubhashiniAli) June 20, 2019
https://twitter.com/uthrarun/status/1141655166048854017
We hope a proper probe is carried out in the matter soon and the culprit if found guilty, is brought to justice.