Hema Committee report: Kerala govt puts ball in panel’s court for being unable to take legal action

Kerala government faces backlash over handling of Hema Committee report on sexual harassment in entertainment industry.

Under fire from Opposition parties and civil society, the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) government in Kerala has attempted to put the ball firmly in the court of the Hema Committee for purportedly precluding the administration from taking legal cognisance of the inquiry panel’s incriminating report that documented, in harrowing detail, instances of sexual bullying, casting couch culture, dismal working conditions, gender pay gap and the threat of boycott that women artistes “encounter” in the Malayalam entertainment industry recurrently.

Former Culture Minister and Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] central committee member A.K. Balan on Tuesday (August 20, 2024) said the Hema Committee had not furnished the government with depositions from victims, which are estimated to be 400 pages long.

(The government constituted the committee when Mr. Balan was the Culture Minister in the first Pinarayi Vijayan government in 2017. The committee had submitted the report to the government under Mr. Balan’s watch in 2019.)

Mr. Balan said the committee’s decision to retain the incriminating evidence, including digital records, pre-empted the government and law enforcement from taking cognisance of the purported offences reported by the aggrieved parties.

He said the committee commenced its work in 2017 based on the fundamental premise that it would not publish or communicate to the government the victims’ statements or the evidence, including digital records, the aggrieved parties tendered in good faith to the inquiry panel.

Instead, Mr. Balan said, the committee limited its remit to submitting an advisory report to the government based on inferences drawn from given facts.

Mr. Balan said the committee’s empathetic position emboldened wronged women to candidly describe their tribulations in the industry to the Hema Committee. The committee honoured its word by keeping within its stated bounds.