Kerala’s movie industry must correct course

The Justice K Hema Committee report offers Kerala’s movie industry a defining choice: It must either acknowledge the problem, reconcile with the wrongs of the past and correct course, or it could let the uproar fade and continue — may be not per usual, but without too many of the changes needed to give women a safe space to work. The state government has refused to push the industry to make the right choice, saying it will wait for women to file complaints officially beforeit acts.

The report, even with the many redactions to protect the privacy of those who have testified, lays bare the alarming instances of abuse and exploitation of women in the industry known for its progressive content. The problem is pervasive, and there are too many influential men — producers, directors, actors, and others — who are directly or indirectly implicated. The report, submitted to the government in December 2019, wasn’t made public for close to five years, with powerful figures trying to bury it. This was despite pressure from the Women in Cinema Collective, upon whose request the panel was set up. This underlines the severely skewed balance of power in the industry and makes it hard to imagine the usual mechanism of internal complaints committees (ICCs) under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 being an effective redress and deterrence tool. The choices that the industry makes now will determine whether it can accord half of its workforce the safe workplace they deserve.

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