The redacted version of the Hema Committee report on workplace harassment in the Malayalam film industry, which was released to RTI applicants on Monday, August 19, cites hesitation to recommend an Internal Committee (IC) in cinema sets. The report says that since the Malayalam film industry is under the “clutches of certain powerful male producers, directors, and actors”, they can coerce and threaten those who are part of the IC to further traumatise survivors. The report also contains several shocking revelations about the state of women’s safety in the Malayalam film industry.
The Hema Committee report was submitted to the Kerala government in December 2019 but remained unpublished for the past four years despite multiple RTI requests and pressure from journalists and women’s rights groups. The report is a 235-page redacted version of the original, from which the names and identifying details of survivors have been removed. It details several workplace issues ranging from a lack of toilet facilities for women on film sets to the presence of a casting couch in the industry.
The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, or the POSH Act recommends the formation of an IC at the workplace. Discussing the difficulties of forming an IC on film sets, the Hema Committee report says that the industry is under the “control/clutches of certain powerful male producers, directors, and actors.” “They control the whole Malayalam film industry and dominate other persons working in cinema. They can even coerce and threaten the persons who work in ICC to deal with complaints in the manner they demand. If any one of them who is a part of ICC does not act according to the dictates of those in power, their future can be ruined and they will be wiped out of the industry, as they are capable of doing it. This situation in cinema is very shocking,” it reads.
The Committee mainly pointed out two issues in the formation of an IC: coercion by powerful persons upon those who are part of the IC, and questions about survivor confidentiality. “...it is most likely that whatever information is confidentially disclosed to the ICC will be conveyed to the persons belonging to the power group, and even the person against whom the complaint is made, contrary to the wishes of the aggrieved woman who makes the allegations,” the report reads.
Further, stating that this information would also be leaked to the public, the report says, “Therefore, the formation of ICC in cinema will only add to the torture the woman has already suffered. The grievance will not be solved, and it is likely that she will be victimized further. She may even be banned from cinema.”
The three-member Committee concluded that the constitution of IC may not be a solution at all to the problems of women in the Malayalam film industry. “We are fully satisfied with the fact that as long as the power structure exists in the Malayalam film industry, they will take full control of it, and the constitution of an ICC comprising of persons in cinema will be of no use at all to protect any woman in the Malayalam film industry from sexual harassment/assault/abuse in cinema.”
The Committee, therefore, suggested that there must be an independent forum constituted by the government to deal with the problems of women in cinema. “Only then can women be liberated from the evils of the Malayalam film industry.”
However, WCC core members Bina Paul and Rima Kallingal tell TNM that they see the constitution of the IC as a major win. Citing that the IC makes a huge difference to workplace safety, they said that its presence gives many women a forum to raise issues, unlike before, when there was no such option.
The Justice Hema Committee was formed by the Kerala Government in 2017 based on a petition by the Women in Cinema Collective (WCC) to study the challenges faced by women in the industry. In December 2019, they had submitted the findings to the Kerala Government but the report was not made public for so long. On July 6, the State Information Commission (SIC) passed an order directing the Kerala government to issue the committee report to RTI applicants before July 2, after redacting information that could identify individuals mentioned in the report, as prohibited under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.