Hema Committee report: Kerala State Information Commission defers decision to release more redacted portions
The Hindu
Kerala SIC defers release of redacted Hema Committee report detailing sexual exploitation, sparking political controversy and protests.
The State Information Commission (SIC) in Kerala on Saturday (December 7, 2024) deferred the decision to release more redacted portions of the 2017 Hema Committee report, which documented in incriminating detail systemic sexual exploitation, workplace harassment and gender inequality in the Malayalam film industry.
A last-minute complaint from an individual against releasing the deleted portions of the sensitive report precluded the SIC from taking a final call on the matter.
Several Right to Information (RTI) activists had moved the SIC, accusing the Kerala government of showing “overzealousness” in censoring essential parts of the damning report to allegedly protect “high-profile and influential wrongdoers”.
They pointed out that the SIC had asked the government to blue-pencil 29 paragraphs regarding the identities of victims and alleged violators, citing privacy issues and future legal implications.
However, the RTI activists alleged that the government overstepped the SIC’s directive and arbitrarily expurgated 130 paragraphs without assigning any reason. The SIC had also rebuked the officers for overstepping their brief.
The Hema Committee report’s “belated” publication sparked off a controversial reckoning of the “misogyny” in the movie industry. It prompted many persons, including aspiring actors, junior artistes, and performers from other States, to relate their “traumatic experiences” on conventional and social media.
The “disclosures” triggered a political controversy, with the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) attempting to put the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government in the dock on the charge of pussyfooting around the Hema Committee report for seven years to save influential figures in the Malayalam filmdom.
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