Million of women across the world have been sharing their experiences of sexual harassment and abuse in an online campaign using the hashtag #MeToo on Twitter and with rolling posts on Facebook. The social media meme was sparked by "Charmed" actress Alyssa Milano on Sunday, who asked her followers to reply "Me Too" if they had ever been sexually harassed or assaulted.
The trend reached India as well and a lot of women shared their personal experiences on social media. Reacting to the outpouring, Kolkata Police put out a Facebook post saying they would like to ‘reiterate our pledge and commitment’ and they had heard ‘every single one of them’.
The handle posted that they will be there to ‘take the complaints’ and urged ‘women to be strong and angry’. They also said they have launched a project called Dear Boys about the need to talk to them about sexual harassment.
Here’s the full post:
Yesterday and today, we found Facebook and Twitter full of the metoo hashtag, which exposes the shocking number of women who have been subject to sexual harassment.
We at Kolkata Police have been perturbed by the number of women who have shared #metoo. And we would also like to reiterate our pledge and commitment by saying that we hear every single one of you.
We are here to take your complaints every time you want to report a case of sexual harassment. So walk into our police stations whenever you want to report sexual harassment, and our officers are there to hear your experiences with patience and kindness and take your complaints. We urge you to be strong, we want you to be very, very angry about the leering, jeering, threats, verbal and physical abuses, we are asking you to be not afraid and to report to the police every time.
We also feel it important to talk to boys about the need to stop sexual harassment, and for this, we have recently launched a project, Dear Boys, in schools. We have visited ten schools of Kolkata, and the second part of Dear Boys will start mid-November
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