Thiruvananthapuram: The Justice Hema Committee report, formed to study workplace conditions and related issues faced by women in Malayalam film industry and submitted to the govt in 2019 but kept under wraps for close to five years, was finally made public on Monday. The 235-page report — 65 pages were redacted to protect privacy of individuals — based on depositions and statements from a number of key witnesses, made shocking observations on widespread sexual exploitation and blatant disregard for women's rights in the industry and the toxic male domination that engendered it. The report painted a sordid picture of humiliating ‘compromises’ that women are forced to make to survive in the cinema industry — including the practice of casting couch and doling out sexual favours to the high and mighty in the industry or risk a premature end to their careers — where the disparity in remuneration between men and women artistes was huge and basic safeguards like internal complaints committee (ICC) existed only in name.
The report of the three-member committee — high court Justice (retd) K Hema, yesteryear star Sharada and retd IAS officer K B Valsala Kumari — was released following a high court observation that its contents should be discussed by civil society to address and rectify issues faced by women in the industry. The committee was originally formed on a demand from the Women in Cinema Collective, following the Feb 2017 abduction and sexual assault of a leadin.