In the buzz of recent sexual harassment charge on Tarun Tejpal, editor of Tehelka, a lot of dirt swept under the carpet has come out. The Indian media that shrieks its lungs out on the dismal state of women rights has glass walls and the stone has landed on one.
As a 24-year-old woman journalist, about six months old in the profession and qualified with few odd internships, I do not term myself as a ‘know it all’ who knows the industry completely well. But I have a very strong sense, born from my limited experience and candid chats with fellow journalists of the potential dangers for a women journalist. I can share the insecurities of working in this profession and what many other women go through.
The absence of anti-sexual harassment cell in most media organisations is a worrying fact. Fortunately, when I joined Business Standard, one of my immediate bosses told me about the committee that is present in our newspaper.
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But every day, passive and often active sexual harassment is a part of this profession. I remember a fellow television journalist said to me, “The only reason they talk to me in office is because they are looking for some sort of sexual favour from me."
Another junior from my college who had recently done an internship told me that her boss told her explicitly: “There are many ways to convert an internship to a job.”
She was about 19 years old and told me that she could come up with no way of dealing with this situation. I simply asked her to quit that place. I don’t know whether what I did was right.
Forget the different kinds of people we meet during reporting, there are colleagues who can pass sexually coloured comments and eyes that can make you feel you are naked. I have heard many stories and also encountered such people during my college internships.While I have never gone through any sort of molestation but you can always sense individuals looking for a ‘chance’.
The accused here is Tarun Tejpal and the victim is a journalist with Tehelka but there are many stories every day in media that no one talks about. The victim has an advantage here of belonging to an elite and recognised media house. Many other journalists working with not so popular media houses have no platform and no formal mechanism to raise the issues they face.
Women sexual exploitation in media is frankly not much different from other sectors of the economy. And when it comes to treating women fairly, no profession, institution and individual should be treated with an assumption of being sacrosanct because no one is a holy cow here. All individuals working in media, police and judiciary are a by-product of the same society that needs reforms in its values for it to be equitable. What’s there to be surprised about?