Singer Chinmayi Sripaada speaks about the importance of breaking silence over sexual harassment

Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], June 10 (ANI): Singer Chinmayi Sripaada has spoken about the #MeToo complaint against lyricist Vairamuthu by more than 17 women and in a conversation with ANI, she shared the importance of political parties coming forward and breaking the silence on cases related to sexual harassment.

She told ANI, “More than 17 women have spoken against Mr Vairamuthu. I know that I filed a complaint with NCW, and Bhuvana Seshan also filed a complaint with NCW. So, that counts under filing a complaint, and lots of people keep saying there that nobody filed a complaint; nobody went to the police station, but the police came home and took the handwritten complaint based on the NCW complaint. That’s how due process works. Bhuvana Seshan’s career has been ruined because of this man. Because of the power he has, he used it to ruin her career.”
The singer further said that she faced the same and she was banned in the industry from working as she spoke against him. “I have been saying that this man’s influence is not just with one party; it is across the board from left to right. Even those women who are feminists have come in defence of this man, so it’s quite sad that the system is completely in this state, and generally, a lot of Tamil people have come across the world to see the need to speak for and in support of this man despite knowing that so many women have spoken up against him.”

At last, she concluded with the need of breaking the silence and taking initiative collectively by political parties and policymakers.

“Political leaders and policymakers, there has to be a collective will to do something like this so that the system is at a certain place so that what we went through does not pass on to another generation. So that people don’t give our example to silence other women for speaking up against sexual harassment regardless of gender. It happens to men, it happens to trans people, and it happens to women and there is a need to break the silence,” she added.

Previously, in an interview with ANI, she mentioned, “So, I myself have been part of a couple of cases where I was a witness for children where their own uncle has molested them and I had been successful to reach out to families they have gone and file the police complaint however they all end up arriving into a compromise outside the police station none of these cases ever get registered none of them ever go to court so lot of these family members forget and forgive all of this kind of stuff that we keep hearing about because, from the time we are raised, girls are told to keep silent to not ruin the family name, family honour or pride.”

“They say if we don’t wear dupatta or we are wearing our hair or dresses everything is our fault and even if it is our own father or uncle or grandfather raped or molested us it is still our fault because we made a mistake of being born as a girl child in the country. This is the one thing that so many of us are talking about since 2018 saying it is not just my case or wrestlers that are fighting today or countless other cases that came in 2018. It is about greater societal problems,” Chinmayi told ANI.