The Kerala Women’s Commission has informed the Kerala High Court that it has requested the State government to constitute an internal complaints committee to deal with the sexual harassment allegations in the Malayalam film industry and enact a legislation for the benefits of employers and employees in the film industry.
In a petition seeking to implead itself in a case filed by the Women in Cinema Collective and others, Commission Director Shaji Sugunan said it had approached the State government and sought constitution of a grievance redressal mechanism in terms of the Vishaka guidelines as well as under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 in the wake of “the gruesome sexual assaults” on a woman actor in 2017.
The petition also pointed out that the recommendation of the expert committee appointed under former High Court Judge K. Hema to go into the problems faced by women in the Malayalam film industry were placed before the Kerala Film Development Corporation, State Chalachitra Academy and Kerala State Cultural Pravarthak Kshemanithy Board for their opinions. The State Chalachitra Academy had also sought constitution of the internal complaints committee.
It said that as the Commission was exclusively functioning for the welfare of the women, it may be allowed to implead in the case as an additional respondent.
The petition filed by the Women in Cinema Collectives in 2018 also sought a directive to constitute an internal complaints committee in the Association of Malayalam Movie Actors (AMMA)to tackle the complaints of sexual harassment in accordance with the guidelines in the Vishaka case. The petition alleged that the actors’ association had not constituted the internal complaints committee.
The petiton said that AMMA’s failure to form the committee had left its women members in lurch without providing any adequate remedy against sexual harassment faced by them at their work places.
