Heena Sharma Blog

Uber Technologies Inc . found more than 3,000 allegations of sexual assaults involving drivers or passengers on its platform in the US last year, part of an extensive and long-awaited review in response to public safety concerns. The ride-hailing company released an 84-page safety report Thursday, seeking to quantify the misconduct and deaths that occur on its system and argue that its service is safer than alternatives. US customers took about 1.3 billion trips last year, Uber said. About 50 people have died in Uber collisions annually for the past two years, at a rate about half the national average for automotive fatalities, according to the company. Nine people were killed in physical assaults last year, Uber said. Uber drivers reported nearly as many allegations of sexual assault as passengers, who made 56 per cent of the claims. There is little comparable data on assaults in taxis or other transportation systems, and experts have said the attacks are widely under-rep...

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) does not consider all complaints when it comes disclosure of sexual harassment complaints. Business Standard wrote to Irdai for data on sexual harassment complaints through an application filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. Of the three financial regulators that we reach out to, Irdai was the promptest in providing the data, without any need for subsequent appeals. However, there were certain mismatches between the annual report figures, and those provided in the RTI reply. (See Chart -1 Complaints at IRDAI) “ The discrepancies referred by you about the information provided under RTI and the annual reports are due to the time lag between the complaint filed with ICC (internal complaints committee), recommendations of the ICC sent to the HR department, final action taken, and the publication of the information in annual report according to timelines given by the department concerned,” said Irdai ...

Gillette’s new ad – “The best men can be”, which plays on the razor brand’s long-held motto, “The best a man can get” – is powerful and emotional, a carefully-spun narrative about the role models young boys see in their daily lives. It tackles bullying, sexual harassment , inequality in the workplace, and sexism on screen, by promoting courage, humility, responsibility, and kindness. It says all of these behaviours make up that complicated construct, “masculinity”. And it challenges viewers to question what sort of behaviour defines manliness. The mutiny against Gillette’s ad reinforces why we need movements like # MeToo and shows how painfully little distance we as a society have covered since it began. In the wake of various high-profile allegations, #MeToo called out unsavoury behaviour that was somehow condoned by society – behaviour that increasingly comes under the umbrella of “toxic masculinity”. Yet Gillette’s ad, which recognises this drive for change and wants to tak...

When you see publishers and authors chatting chummily at book parties, you’re likely to think that they’re on the same side — the side of great literature and the free flow of ideas. In reality, their interests are at odds. Publishers are marketers. They don’t like scandals that might threaten their bottom line — or the bottom lines of the multinational media conglomerates of which most form a small part. Authors are people, often flawed. Sometimes they behave badly. How, for instance, should publishers deal with the # MeToo era , when accusations of sexual impropriety can lead to books being pulled from shelves and syllabuses, as happened last year with the novelists Junot Díaz and Sherman Alexie? One answer is the increasingly widespread “morality clause.” Over the past few years, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins and Penguin Random House have added such clauses to their standard book contracts.   Read More Business Standard

In the wake of the # MeToo movement , almost 80 per cent of men have become overly cautious in their interactions with women colleagues, according to a report. The study by market research and analysis company Velocity MR, which had over 2,500 respondents across Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Hyderabad, and Chennai, noted that eight out of 10 people said that formal workplace interactions have been highly impacted as a result of the movement . It found that close to 80 per cent of the respondents said fear of losing their career, family reputation, social stigma, and scepticism could be some of the reasons for the victims not reporting the cases earlier. Also, around 70 per cent of the respondents agreed that even after reporting the cases, victims still face threats. The study further observed that close to 50 per cent of the respondents disapproved of victims reporting the abuse later, while two in five males supported the victims saying they are right in repo...

Hundreds of Google engineers and other workers are expected to walk off the job Thursday morning to protest the internet company's lenient treatment of executives accused of sexual misconduct. It is the latest expression of a backlash against men's exploitation of female subordinates in a business, entertainment and politics. In Silicon Valley, women also are becoming fed up with the male-dominated composition of the technology industry's workforce a glaring imbalance that critics say fosters unsavory behaviour akin to a college fraternity house. The Google protest, billed " Walkout For Real Change ," is unfolding a week after a New York Times story detailed allegations of sexual misconduct about creator of its Android software, Andy Rubin. The report said Rubin received a $90 million severance package in 2014 even though Google concluded the sexual misconduct allegations again him were credible. Rubin derided the Times story article as inacc...

Union minister M J Akbar , facing charges of sexual harassment that go back to his time as newspaper editor, has not only refused to step down but insinuated that the approaching Lok Sabha elections had a bearing on the allegations. Speaking on Sunday after his return from his official visit abroad, he said he would take legal action against the women who had alleged sexual harassment by him. Akbar’s holding out, sources in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said, stemmed from the seeming support he received from the party leadership. However, the sources also said Akbar was likely to be dropped as minister. Though there is little political cost to the BJP if Akbar goes, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has had a track record since his time as chief minister of Gujarat of backing his ministers even when they have faced criminal charges and have been chargesheeted. For the time, Akbar has been given an opportunity to defend himself, party sources said. Read Complete Article ...

Women speaking out about sexual violence on social media and elsewhere in recent times marks a significant departure from the norm. Just how much so, can be gauged from the government-backed National Family Health Survey. The latest installment of the data that the International Institute for Population Sciences helped collect, was released in December 2017. It shows that that less than a fifth of women ever even told anyone about instances of sexual violence (see chart 1). There is also no distinction in reporting between urban and rural areas despite the former having better access to facilities like education. The median urban female completes seven years of schooling compared to 3.1 years for rural women. Less than 15 per cent of either category sought help following sexual or physical violence (see chart 2). Wealth also doesn't seem to matter when it comes to such instances. The percentage of those seeking help is the same for both the poorest and the richest-les...

A new study has shed light on the prevalence of sexual harassment and assault and negative implications for women's mental and physical health. The # MeToo Movement , in addition to raising awareness, has provided people with a voice to speak out when they've been wronged, harassed, or assaulted. The study shows that not only are sexual harassment and assault highly prevalent today, but they may also have negative health consequences. The #MeToo Movement officially started in 2007 and was created as a way to publicly demonstrate the widespread problems of sexual harassment and assault in the United States. The movement gained momentum in 2017, largely as a result of the highly-publicized Hollywood scandals and has remained strong throughout 2018, forcing a number of accused, high-profile individuals to be fired or resign from their positions. While these repercussions have been largely positive, they fail to address the long-term consequences the victim suffer...

A wave of sexual harassment complaints that accompanied the #MeToo movement is straining many of the state and local offices tasked with policing workplace discrimination of all kinds. Places such as New York City and Massachusetts have added resources to deal with the surge in complaints, but human rights agencies elsewhere say their small staffs are struggling to keep up with growing caseloads. In Connecticut, which is on pace to receive nearly twice as many sexual harassment complaints as last year, some lawmakers worry about delays resolving those cases and others involving employment, housing and credit discrimination. "If someone has gotten up the strength to come forward, I don't want that strength to be dissipated because of a system that's broken," state Sen. Mae Flexer said. Read Full Article

After public transportation, local markets, private tuitions or roads leading to school were regarded as most unsafe among young girls Current Affairs News : India’s richest girls and young women, aged 11 to 18, felt the least safe among all income groups in public spaces, according to a new report that explored safety perceptions among adolescent girls. Across urban (47%) and rural (40%) areas, young girls reported feeling more susceptible to molestation or abuse while using public transport, said the report, Wings 2018: World Of India’s Girls, released by Save The Children in India, an international non-governmental organisation. This finding was particularly true for girls from higher income groups (53%), belonging to the other backward classes (OBC) and general castes (45%), according to the study Girls from medium and small towns (51%) reported feeling more unsafe than those in large cities (44%), small villages (42%) and large villages (39%). “A possible reaso...