New Delhi: Ever since Tanushree Dutta accused Nana Patekar of sexually harassing her in 2008 during a film shoot, several cases of alleged sexual misconduct have come to light from the film industry, media, advertising, NGOs and the arts.

A statement that has been endorsed by leading activists in Gujarat has hailed the movement and urged civil society to come out in solidarity with survivors.

“We are shocked and appalled to learn that the quietness of civil society is being misrepresented as support for the accused,”it said, reiterating its commitment to creating safe working spaces.

They have appealed to organisations and civil society groups to comply with the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act. Over 500 people signed the petition, standing in solidarity with those who have opened up about sexual harassment.

Also read: The #MeToo Movement Is a Step Towards Gender Equality

Civil society groups have welcomed ofthe developments of the past month. A group of activists from Hyderabad had extended their support to Tanushree Dutta and others who have shared their harrowing experience of sexual assault. Condemning the film industry’s “misogynistic culture”, the Hyderabad collective appealed to CINTAA to amend its grievance redressal mechanism and asked influential personalities from the industry to support the movement.

Following the trail of complaints on social media, the government of India has decided to constitute a ministerial panel to look into the grievances of women who have faced workplace harassment. The ministry of women and child development has also provided separate email ids for all the complainants.

The statement is reproduced in full below.

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We the undersigned have learnt that several women from Ahmedabad have come out in public in the ongoing Me Too campaign on social media against sexual harassment, and assault perpetrated on them.

It is brave of these survivors to speak given the mental & physical trauma they have undergone worsened by the societal stigma that women face. We pledge our unconditional support to these women who have opened up a conversation about many uncomfortable questions. Any survivor who wishes to speak, whether by disclosing their identity or anonymously, will be provided help by us.

We are shocked and appalled to learn that the quietness of civil society is being misrepresented as support for the accused particularly in the case of sexual harassment charges on Pravin Mishra associated with MICA brought to attention by the journalist Surabhi Vaya in her recent Facebook post. We strongly and unequivocally condemn such attempts to malign survivors, and reiterate our support to the survivors that we fully stand behind them. Any effort to blame and stigmatise the survivors must stop.

Organisations, including civil society groups, must comply with the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act (2013) by forming Internal Complaints Committee (ICC), if they have not done so already. Not complying with this law suggests that they do not stand with the survivors which is a gross violation of the Constitutional spirit of gender equality for which civil society exists.

The act of speaking out by survivors, in face of the patriarchal odds stacked against them, is an act of great courage. We hope that these courageous acts of women will lead to a greater degree of gender justice on the streets, on university campuses, and at workplaces. We join them in this fight towards injustice and urge you to also support them.

Survivors of sexual violence/harassment can get in touch with Gujarat Mahila Manch for support at gujaratmahilamanch@gmail.com

List of signatories

1. Aanal Bhatt

2. Aarti Nair

3. Aastha Vij

4. Aathira Konikkara

5. Abdul Hafiz lakhani

6. Abha Deshpande

7. Abha Mehra

8. Abha Talesara

9. Abhijin Asher

10. Abhiraj Das

11. Abhiram Nukalapati

12. Abhishek Naulakha

13. Abida Desai

14. Abin Thomas

15. Abrar Ali Saiyed

16. Adil Hossain

17. Adil Rughani

18. Aditi Jha

19. Aditi Rajeev

20. Aditi Shah Aman

21. Aditi Thakur

22. Aditi Upadhyay

23. Advaita

24. Aesha Dey

25. Aishwarya

26. Aishwarya Nagaraja

27. Ajay Kumar

28. Ajaz Shaikh

29. Ajit Bhadoriya

30. Akhilesh P

31. Akshay Dixit

32. Aleek Sahi

33. Aman Jain

34. Amay

35. Ameya

36. Amita

37. Anahita

38. Anand Mazgaonkar

39. Ananya Biswas

40. Angana Nanavaty

41. Aniruddha D

42. Anirudh Kanga

43. Anish Sood

44. Anjali

45. Ankita Thobias

46. Ankur Sarin

47. Anmol Surollia

48. Annapurna A S

49. Anokhee

50. Anoop Yadav

51. Anshul

52. Anshuman Sanghvi

53. Anubhuti Arya

54. Anukriti Dixit

55. Anupriya Prabhuswamy

56. Anurag Shukla

57. Anwesha Das

58. Arastu

59. Aravinda DK

60. Archana Warudi

61. Areiba Arif

62. Arnaaz Nizami

63. Arshad

64. Arshu John

65. Asaf Ali

66. Asha J

67. Asha Shrivastava

68. Ashish Kakkad

69. Ashish Mhatre

70. Ashlesha Shrivastava

71. Ashok Mirchandani

72. Ashwin Kumar

73. Ashwin S

74. Atish Chhara

75. Atul Solanki

76. Avnee

77. Ayesha

78. Ayushi

79. Ayushi Shah

80. Ayushi Suman

81. Aziz Minat

82. B P Gagan Deep

83. Bandish Soparkar

84. Bharat Pathak

85. Bhargav Oza

86. Bhavana

87. Bhavna Ramrakhiani

88. Bhawna Jaimini

89. Bhumika

90. Brijesh Hirat

91. Brishti Mondal

92. Chaitanya Dutt

93. Charul Dhingra

94. Chethana Venkataraghavan

95. Chinar Shah

96. Chinmay Tumbe

97. Chintan Barchha

98. Chintan Gandhi

99. Chirag Trivedi

100. Chitra Mathur

101. D M Rao

102. Dakxin Chhara

103. Daniella Fernandes

104. Darshita Jain

105. Dasmeet Makhija

106. Debanshu Bhaumik

107. Deeksha Shekar

108. Deep Pal

109. Deepa Joshi

110. Deepa Kamath

111. Deepa Mirchandani

112. Deepak

113. Deepesh Chaudhary

114. Deepika

115. Deepika Saluja

116. Deepmala Dutta

117. Dev Desai

118. Dev Desai

119. Devansh Saraswat

120. Devanshi Singhi

121. Dhaval

122. Dhaval Chauhan

123. Dhiya Kuriakose

124. Dhruv Bhandari

125. Dhruv Goel

126. Dhruv Gupta

127. Dhruv Kothari

128. Dhvanee Bhavsar

129. Dipesh Jain

130. Dipti Urs

131. Disha

132. Disha Mehta

133. Divya

134. Divyansh Jain

135. Dr Mitu Khurana

136. Dr N Prabhuswamy

137. Dr. Amrita Ghatak

138. Dr. Jitendra Nanawala

139. Dr. Rajeev Sankhla

140. Drishti Korat

141. Fatimah Sareshwala

142. Freyan Patel

143. Gaurav Daftary

144. Gautam Teaotia

145. George Kandathil

146. Ghanshyam Shah

147. Gopika

148. Guchu

149. Hardi Shah

150. Hardik

151. Harmanjot Kaur

152. Harsh Mittal

153. Harsh Torani

154. Harsh Vasanani

155. Harshal Oza

156. Hasti Modi

157. Heer Mehta

158. Heman

159. Hemil Shah

160. Himangini Mishra

161. Himanshu

162. Hiranya Kallakuri

163. Hitesh Fulwani

164. Hrutvija

165. Huma Nizami

166. I I Munshi

167. Indu

168. Irpinder Bhatia

169. Ishita Biswas

170. Ishu Gupta

171. Jahnavi

172. Jahnavi

173. Jaina Mehta

174. Janakarajan

175. Janaki Mehta

176. Jasbirkaur Thadhani

177. Jaskaransingh Madan

178. Jasraj Shah

179. Jeemol Unni

180. Jeevika Shiv

181. Jharna Pathak

182. Jigyasu Kumar

183. Jika Gonzalez

184. Judy Frater

185. Justin Chan

186. Jyot Patel

187. Kabya shree Borgohain

188. Kalgi Patel

189. Kamakshi Ayyar

190. Kanishk Saini

191. Karan Singhal

192. Karishma

193. Karthik Rao Cavale

194. Karthik S

195. Karthik Sivaram

196. Kartik Sharma

197. Kavya

198. Kavya

199. Kena Wani

200. Keshav Jee

201. Ketan S Deshmukh

202. Khalil Khan

203. Khanh Pham

204. Kim Pereira

205. Kinna

206. Koena Lahiri

207. Kokila

208. Koonal Duggal

209. Krina

210. Kristen Brown

211. Krithika Rajkumar

212. Kumarpal Jain

213. Kumud Bhandari

214. Kunal Purohit

215. Lakshya

216. Lalfakzuala Hnamte

217. Lalit Vaya

218. Leena Jain

219. Lokesh Ghai

220. Lovish

221. Luke Hammill

222. Madhusudan

223. Mahika Banerjee

224. Mahika Pavithran

225. Malay Dave

226. Manishi Jani

227. Mansi Choksi

228. Margie Sastry

229. Marielle Mondon

230. Matthew Claiborne

231. Maya Bettagere

232. Maya Sharma

233. Meenakshi

234. Meera Desai

235. Meeraj Kothari

236. Meet Bhatt

237. Mehul Devkala

238. Mehul Mehta

239. Mihir Jagdish Patel

240. Minal Joshi

241. Mishthi Dubey

242. Mithilesh Narayan Bhatt

243. Mitul Kajaria

244. Moksha

245. Mona Prabhu

246. Morvi jangid

247. Muneeb Ul Lateef Banday

248. Muskan Bajaj

249. N Ginwala

250. Nachiket Yagnik

251. Nachiketa Desai

252. Nachiketh L

253. Nadeem Jafri

254. Naheed

255. Namrata Vaghela

256. Namya Mahajan

257. Nandini Singh

258. Nandita Muni

259. Naren Chatterjee

260. Natasha Patel

261. Navdeep Mathur

262. Neeta Hardikar

263. Neha Shah

264. Neha Vermani

265. Nidhi Chawla

266. Nidhi Pandya

267. Nihaal Faizal

268. Niharika Joshi

269. Niharika Sanyal

270. Niharika Sonavane

271. Nikita

272. Nikita Mehta

273. Nikita Sonavane

274. Nikki Zielinski

275. Nilesh Wagh

276. Nirali

277. Nirja Vasavada

278. Nisha S patel

279. Nishant

280. Nishant Shah

281. Niyanta

282. Nripa

283. Ojaswini Mandhan

284. P M Chaudhary

285. Padmavathy G

286. Palak Chhabra

287. Pankaj Chandra

288. Pankaj Ghosh

289. Paramveer Singh

290. Parantap Bhatt

291. Parth Charan

292. Parth Kapadia

293. Parth Lakhani

294. Parth Mehta

295. Parth Shrimali

296. Parul Jain

297. Persis Ginwalla

298. Phalak Vyas

299. Piyush Ozarde

300. Piyush Pandya

301. Prachi Gupta

302. Prachi S Vaish

303. Prachir Vardhan Singh

304. Pragnya Joshi

305. Prakhar Misra

306. Pranav Garg

307. Pranjal Sharma

308. Pranusha Kulkarni

309. Prasad Subramanyan

310. Prasanth Narayanan

311. Prateek Khobragade

312. Pratik Parmar

313. Preet Shah

314. Prerana Keshav

315. Prerna Anilkumar

316. Prithvi Acharya

317. Priya Meena

318. Priyal Thakkar

319. Priyanka Raja

320. Priyanka Shah

321. Priyanka Shah

322. Puja Todi

323. Puraniya Mahesh

324. R S Gambhir

325. Rachel

326. Raghav Garg

327. Raghu Pratap

328. Ragvendra Singh Khichi

329. Rahul Sharma

330. Rajul Jain

331. Rakesh Basant

332. Rakshith N R

333. Rama Mohana Turaga

334. Ramit Malhotra

335. Ramya Palavajjhala

336. Ranaji

337. Rashi Seth

338. Rashmi Kumari

339. Reetika Revathy Subramanian

340. Renu

341. Renuka Naik

342. Resmy

343. Revanta Sarabhai

344. Rhea Martha Benny

345. Rhea Thacker

346. Ria

347. Ria De

348. Rini Dasgupta

349. Rinku Meena

350. Ripudaman Singh

351. Rishabh Mall

352. Rita Kothari

353. Ritika Gupta

354. Ritvik Chauhan

355. Romanie Jaitly

356. Roopa Mehta

357. Roopal

358. Rubaina Shrivastava

359. Rubina Jasani

360. Ruchi Marshal

361. Ruchi Soni

362. Rupa Ram Nayak

363. Rushil Palavajjhala

364. Rutika Dabgar

365. Ruwab Khemchandani

366. Saagar Gupta

367. Sagarika

368. Sahil Thappa

369. Sajal Jain

370. Sakshi Saxena

371. Salonee Shukla

372. Saloni Saraf

373. Salonie Hiriyur

374. Samia Vasa

375. Samra Khan

376. Samson Anto Kingsley S

377. Sanjana Biswas

378. Sanjana Chowhan

379. Sanjukta Chakraborty

380. Santosh

381. Saravanan V

382. Sargam Jain

383. Sarrah

384. Sarthak J Shetty

385. Sasha Mehta

386. Satya Oza

387. Seher

388. Sejal Dand

389. Sejal Patel

390. Sevak

391. Shail Desai

392. Shaina N

393. Shama Shah

394. Shamini Kothari

395. Sharija

396. Sharik Laliwala

397. Sharmi Sen

398. Sharmila Sagara

399. Sharmistha M.

400. Sharon Weir

401. Shashi

402. Shaukat Hamdani

403. Sheba Tejani

404. Shekar N

405. Shikha Verma

406. Shilpa Gavane

407. Shireen Azam

408. Shivangi

409. Shreeraksha. K.S

410. Shrena D’souza

411. Shruthi Vishwanath

412. Shruti Chaturvedi

413. Shweta

414. Shyam

415. Siddanth Sanil

416. Siddharth Vaya

417. Simantini Dey

418. Simone

419. Sindhuri Talwar

420. Smriti Mehra

421. Sneha Kumar

422. Sony Kunjappan

423. Steffi

424. Stephanie Hwang

425. Stephen Jiwanmall

426. Stuti Agrawal

427. Subhash Raghunath Apte

428. Suchi Nambiar

429. Sudha Padmaja Francis

430. Sukruta Alluri

431. Sulakshana Ray

432. Sumant Majmudar

433. Sumit Khanna

434. Suneet

435. Sunetra Deshpande

436. Sunil Saini

437. Supriya Nair

438. Surabhi Kanga

439. Surbhi Prajapati

440. Surekha

441. Suvarna Kadam

442. Swati Goswami

443. Swati Thampan

444. T Srivasavi Harika

445. Talitha Balan

446. Tana Trivedi

447. Tanaya

448. Tanishka Kachru

449. Tanushree Bhandari

450. Tanvi Joshi

451. Tanvi Marathe

452. Tanya Ginwala

453. Tariq Engineer

454. Tarun Kumar Rathore

455. Tasneem Nashrulla

456. Tejal Bhatt

457. Tejas Ahuja

458. Tejashree

459. Tejaswi Havisha Jamisetty

460. Tejaswini Shaktawat

461. Titiksha Pandit

462. Tushar Meshram

463. Tushnaa Ginwala

464. Udit Sood

465. Udita Bhatt

466. Ujaala Chaudhuri

467. Urvish Kothari

468. Uves Sareshwala

469. Vaibhav Nayak

470. Vaishnavi Pavithran

471. Vandana

472. Vandana

473. Vandana Sipahimalani-Rao

474. Vaneja Gupta

475. Vasvi Oza

476. Venkateswaran S.

477. Vibhav N K

478. Vidit Ghelani

479. Vihan shah

480. Vijay Ramchandani

481. Vikas Agarwal

482. Vikramaditya SIngh Chouhan

483. Vinit

484. Vipul Nanda

485. Vishakha Sharma

486. Vishal Soni

487. Vishesh Saxena

488. Vishwa Balani

489. Vishwa Srivastava

490. Vismaya Jain

491. Vivek Chaudhary

492. Vivek Mehta

493. Vivek Rawal

494. Vruti Patel

495. Vyom Mheta

496. Yannick Sethna

497. Yatharth Shah

498. Yudhishthir Agrawal

499. Zahabiya Doctor

500. Zahir Janmohamed

501. Zakia Soman

502. Zenia Arsiwala