Kaali ...ek agnipariksha to fight against sexual harassment of women

Star Plus announced the launch of a new serial with a panel discussion on sexual harassment of women. Actor Ashutosh Rana, who plays the negative role in the series ‘Kaali…Ek Agnipriksha’ being launched from 13 September from Monday to Friday at 11.00 pm also took part in the discussion. The show is produced by Fox Star Studio India Pvt. Ltd and is aimed at increasing social awareness about the growing number of cases of sexual crimes against women. The other key panelists at the discussion were Ms. Indira Jaisingh, Additional Solicitor General and senior advocate C Aryan Sundaram, former Union Women and Child Welfare Minister Renuka Chowdhury, mediaperspon Madhu Trehan, eminent columnist Dilip Cherian, and fashion designer Ritu Beri. There was general consensus on two major points: that the law only defines sexual harassment of women in physical terms and there is nothing about mental or other harassment – sometimes through gestures, and that it was more a societal than legal problem. A recent research has shown that every fifth woman worker is sexually harassed in India. A number of women face this brutal treatment everyday across the country. The speakers said it was important that women should speak up about such harassment as that would be the only way to control the situation. However, there was also agreement that there was a thin dividing line as to what constituted sexual harassment. For example, it was stated that if a man happened to be looking at a girl and she became conscious and adjusted her dress or turned in the other direction, it could not be presumed that the man had tried to harass her, or that she had deliberately attempted to provoke him. Ashutosh who plays Thakral in the series said it was clear that sexual harassment of the man or the woman was really a battle between the person in authority and the person who was subordinate. The story of ‘Kaali’ is a classic fight between good and evil. It is about a teenaged girl, Rachna who dreams of becoming India's next badminton star, and is threatened by Thakral. But Rachna shows the grit and determination to fight back. The show explores if she will have the strength to become today's ‘Kaali’.