#MeToo: How to develop mechanisms to ensure safer workplaces for women

Trial by the media can be avoided if the industry itself devises effective mechanisms to bring this to an end

Finally, the #MeToo movement is catching up in India almost a year after in the United States. Gowree Gokhale and Preetha Soman of law firm Nishith Desai Associates address a few pertinent questions in the context of rights of workers and the obligations of employers in the media and entertainment industry. Edited excerpts:

Who is covered under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition & Redressal) Act, 2013 (Act)?

The Act protects only women. Accordingly, women employees of a producer, women actors, make-up artists, choreographers and even visitors to a production house or on the film sets are