Priya Ramani has accused former editor and Union minister MJ Akbar of sexual harassment.
Priya Ramani, the journalist who accused former editor and Union minister MJ Akbar of sexual harassment, on Thursday said the #MeToo campaign has resulted in women speaking out everywhere about the sexual harassment they face.
Since the launch of the #MeToo campaign three years back, there were 35 million tweets world over till 2019 on this issue, she said quoting a UN data.
Addressing a session of the Tata Steel Kolkata Literary Meet, Ms Ramani said this is only the tip of the overall situation.
Around 200 women had spoken out as part of the #MeToo campaign in India, she added. "We have reached such a stage where women are not afraid to speak out."
Ms Ramani has been fighting a defamation case for her charges against the minister who denied the charge and later resigned from the cabinet.
After the scandal involving Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein hit the headlines in the US in 2017, the #MeToo campaign kicked off with celebrities coming out with their stories of sexual harassment, especially at the workplace. The campaign soon spread to India, with most accusations coming from Bollywood and the media industry.
Speaking on the topic "2020 Vision: Being Woman", the editor and commentator said women were mostly seen in flights as attendants in the past, now one-third of the pilots of a particular private airline are women. "Women are also flying fighter jets," she said.
The journalist also lauded West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee for fielding 17 women candidates in last Lok Sabha elections, many of whom had won.