Post-Hema Committee: How to ensure women’s safety in the film industry

In Focus by The Hindu

The K. Hema Committee report has shaken up the Malayalam film industry, bringing into the public domain all kinds of horrors. Based on direct testimonies, it has documented rampant sexual exploitation, illegal bans, discrimination, wage disparity, and inhuman working conditions, with women not having access to even basic amenities such as toilets and changing rooms.

Significantly, it notes that the Malayalam film industry is controlled by a tight-knit cabal of 10 to 15 all-male producers, directors and actors, who could ban anyone from the industry. It also flags the fear that witnesses felt in speaking freely about their experiences working in the industry.

How is it that in such a big industry with an annual turnover of more than ₹1,000 crores, employees don’t have basic protections or decent working conditions? Will the persons who perpetrated the crimes documented in the Report be brought to book? And what kind of legal mechanisms can be put in place to protect the safety of women in the film industry?

Guest: Thulasi K Raj, a lawyer who practices at the Kerala High Court and at the Supreme Court of India.

Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu

Edited by Jude Francis Weston