Kerala government’s handling of Hema panel report shows insincerity on gender issues: Experts
The delay in the release of the justice Hema commission report, key pages being redacted from it contrary to the information commission’s orders and sexual abuse allegations against its prominent members have all contributed to a loss of face for the CPI(M)-led government in Kerala.
The delay in the release of the justice Hema commission report, key pages being redacted from it contrary to the information commission’s orders and sexual abuse allegations against its prominent members have all contributed to a loss of face for the CPI(M)-led government in Kerala, political analysts and social critics said.
The Pinarayi Vijayan-led government approved the publication of the Hema commission report, which documented systemic sexual abuse of women in the Malayalam film industry, on August 19 after four-and-a-half years when it was submitted by the three-member panel elicited criticism from both opposition parties and activists.
While the report has been redacted to protect the privacy of those who spoke to the commission, the available documents pointed to alleged sexual harassment as the number one issue faced by women in the industry, the presence of a ‘casting couch’ and an all-male power group that kept a vice-like grip apart from glaring issues of remuneration and treatment of junior artists.
Activists later pointed out that pages 49-53 containing 11 paragraphs, which were to be published as per the orders of the state public information officer (SPIO), were held back by the government, pointing to suspicions of names of key accused being protected.
However, Vijayan denied allegations of both delays on the report as well as pages being redacted. “Some women in the industry made confidential revelations before the Hema committee. Therefore Justice Hema repeatedly requested in the letter that the report should not be released under any circumstances,” he claimed on August 22.
Following the report’s release, there has been a flurry of sexual abuse allegations raised by women actors against male figures, leading to the reigniting of the hashtag MeToo movement. Two of such male figures are associated with the CPI(M) – filmmaker Ranjith Balakrishnan and actor Mukesh. While Ranjith stepped down as the chairman of the state-run Kerala Chalachitra Academy, Mukesh continues to hold on to his post of MLA in the wake of the allegations. Both men have denied the charges and vowed to take legal action.
J Prabhash, former professor of political science at Kerala University, said the problem began when the government decided not to act on the report when it was submitted in December 2019.
“Except the courts, the government does not listen to anybody including the Hema panel or the information commission on the question of releasing the report. The state has no right to deny the publication of the report or the accounts in it. The law states that names of survivors and other identifiable details must be withheld. Everything else can be publicised. The entire society must know what the committee said,” Prabhash told HT.
“When the LDF government sat on the report for over four years, it became clear that it was not sincere on the gender issues in cinema. Between the big names in the industry, it is sad that the government chose to side with the big names,” he added.
The Left government, he underlined, lost the moral responsibility of standing with the women and survivors when it dilly-dallied on action against its members like Ranjith and Mukesh.
J Devika, professor at the Centre for Development Studies and a social critic who writes about gender issues in Kerala, termed the LDF government’s handling of the issue ‘disastrous’.
“I think the government has a lot of fears about the kind of names mentioned in the report. The people at the top of the Malayalam cinema industry are not just actors, they are power brokers. They have a great deal of money. In contrast, when I read the report, the workers especially women in the lower rungs of the film industry are worse than those in informal sectors when it comes to remuneration. In many ways, the Hema report corroborates a lot of information which was present in society in the form of whispers and speculation,” she said.
She also questioned the government as to why it chose not to implement changes in the film industry to improve labour conditions, especially for women, for over four years. “There were recommendations in the report that were never implemented when it came to remuneration and other aspects,” she said.
A team led by Devika at CDS in fact is preparing a labour policy framework to be submitted to the government, pushing for minimum wages and contractual appointments.
Sunnykutty Abraham, a writer and political analyst, agreed that the whole saga over the report and its repercussions have resulted in a ‘loss of face’ for the government.
“The report was about the working conditions of women in cinema. Why did the government need to hide it for over four years? It’s a committee that the Vijayan government itself appointed. Did they not think when the report is submitted, it has to come out before the public? “ he asked.
He also censured the CPI(M) for continuing to give political patronage to actor-MLA M Mukesh despite the sexual charges against him. “The government has still not removed him from the committee to draft a policy for films. It’s wrong,” he said.