Varalaxmi Sarathkumar, who was in the news for boldly coming out to expose the ugly reality of the casting couch in film industry, is all set to reach the masses once again.
At a time when crime against women and girl children is on the rise, the actress is launching a signature campaign called #Save Shakti on International Women’s Day (March 8).
Speaking to DC, Varalaxmi says, “Of late, the kind of sexual harassment and violence that’s meted out to girls and women is very disturbing and depressing.
The main aim of this initiative is to motivate women to stand up for themselves. The goal of the campaign is to sign petitions and urge the state government to increase the number of Fast Track and Mahila Courts in every taluk and magistrate level, which are handling these cases.” Putting across her points strongly, the actress adds, “We also insist that a stipulated time should be fixed for the verdict in any type of case, say maximum within six months. The cases cannot go on endlessly and we want to save those victims or their kin from going through the trauma for a prolonged period.”
She says, “We have done enough research on this issue. We found out that the conviction is a mere five per cent, which, compared to the crime rate is nowhere.” Varu also asserts that she has spoken to many top lawyers and that it’s possible for the government to implement her requests.
As an actress, yet another interesting attempt she has in the pipeline is to meet the FEFSI (Film Employees Federation of South India) honchos and request them to constitute a body only for women in the industry — “There’s a union for producers, actors and technicians, but nothing for women who work there; be it actresses, junior artistes, makeup women or dancers. I am going to form a group that would head the body from all walks of life, comprising of people who are influential to reach out to government and police.”
