The aftershocks of the “mini-explosion” a study report on sexual exploitation in the Malayalam film industry has triggered appear to be so powerful that they are most certain to force a clean-up of the messy field not only in Kerala but even beyond the borders of this small state. A careful handling of its impact by the government and the people will add to the progress the state as seen through the lens of human development indicators in the last century. Maybe, it will act as a catalyst for such measures elsewhere even.
It is a fact that the Kerala government sat on the report of the Justice Hema Committee, which also had a veteran actress and a retired woman IAS officer as members, for about four-and-a-half years. That the report exposed the truth behind the dehumanising practices in the film industry with the help of the victims of such acts who narrated their first-hand experiences after being assured of anonymity did not move the government for reasons only it can make peace with. That the committee also recommended a series of measures which would have ended exploitation of women and made the industry a workplace governed by modern precepts of human dignity and equality was not acted upon for by a Left government defies logic. It took the determined efforts of the Women in Cinema Collective, a grouping of daring woman personalities in “Mollywood”, for the report to see the light of day.
However, the government appears to be making up for these lapses. The special investigation team the government formed with four female IPS officers in it to investigate cases of sexual harassment on film sets has made some progress. As it stands today, the SIT has booked more than a dozen cases against veteran actors and technicians based on complaints received. Just like the Justice Hema Committee, it approached the women who raised these allegations, interviewed them at length and decided on whether or not to register a case. Among those who now face cases for criminal assaults on women are an MLA of the ruling CPI(M) and the secretary of the powerful actors’ association. The government must now take the cases to their logical end by prosecuting all those who took their positions in the industry as a free pass to hunt down women who were seeking a career in films.
One monumental failure of the Left government in the state is that it wasted precious time in introducing legal measures to make the film making industry humane. The government run by parties that swear by the working class remained silent on measures suggested in the report, which included the setting up of a tribunal to regulate the industry, all these years. It must at least now act on those recommendations. While punishing the perpetrators of crimes is one aspect of the clean-up process, putting in place legal and regulatory mechanisms alone cannot accomplish the difficult mission. The state government must realise that the film industry in several states have demanded setting up similar committees to study their own issues. The success of the Kerala experiment will decide the fate of those demands, but it is women who have to show the way.
