Hyderabad: Male solidarity is in full swing with molesters, but not with victims, said singer Chinmayi Sripada on Saturday. She was speaking at a panel discussion held during the launch of the ‘Stand With Her’ campaign, organised by the Telangana police’s Women Safety Wing (WSW), with TOI as its official media partner. The year-long campaign aims to encourage men to stand up for women.During the session, Chinmayi said that, in most cases, victims have no one to support them as they are surrounded by bystanders and onlookers.Recalling the #MeToo movement, she said: “Hardly two or three people stood by me in 2018, when I and several others accused a Tamil lyricist of misconduct and sexual harassment. The man was so powerful that he received help from all quarters, and I was banned from the Tamil industry in less than a week.”Incidentally, not just women, but men also generally do not stand by their fellow men when they are victims of harassment, she said. “Many men who were abused as children confided in me after I spoke up in 2018. It’s unfortunate that they don’t even have anyone to talk to,” said the 41-year-old singer.She said that women who speak out about social issues, like her, are targeted with profanity on social media. “All the profanity I know is only because of social media. I was called a prostitute. They said that a woman like me should never have children, and they even wished death upon my children,” she added.The panellists, which included police officials and people from the film industry, emphasised the importance of listening to women, supporting them when they are in an uncomfortable situation and speaking out against cheap or demeaning jokes, rather than ignoring or laughing at them.“I was guilty of this. During my time at university, I laughed at a comment made by a senior who offered to buy a saree for a woman wearing shorts. I later realised that, while a man is respected by default, a woman is only respected if she falls into a certain bracket. A woman wearing a sari or churidar is respected, but a woman wearing shorts is not. This has to change,” said Tejaswini Madabhushi, CEO of Yugantar and a feminist activist.Emphasising the importance of changing mindsets and narratives instead of blaming women, the panellists added that respecting women should begin at home.“When a woman in distress approaches you, you can tell just by hearing her voice that she is in an uncomfortable situation. The best thing to do is to listen to her and support her,” said Vedala Hemachandra, a playback singer, who advised women to trust their instincts and avoid danger.
