‘We want Hema committee report of our own’: Kannada actor Chetan Kumar

BENGALURU: Kannada actor and activist Chetan Kumar a.k.a Chetan ‘Ahimsa’ has demanded a Hema Committee report for Karnataka, similar to the one commissioned by the Kerala government, to address gender-based issues in the film industry.

Chetan Kumar, founder of FIRE (Film Industry for Rights and Equality), emphasised the need for a comprehensive report to tackle pervasive inequality, discrimination, and sexual harassment in the film industry.

“Our FIRE (Film Industry for Rights and Equality), an organisation started in 2017 for the benefit of three W’s — women, writers, and workers in the film industry. We were the first organisation to start up an internal complaints committee in any film industry in the nation to address sexual harassment. We started in 2017. In 2018, we stood with the survivors of #MeToo and we gave them moral, legal and emotional support and various things. We have been working for seven years”, the actor said.

Chetan Kumar praised the Kerala government for publishing the Hema Committee report, which exposed shocking accounts of harassment and exploitation of women professionals in the Malayalam cinema industry.

“Today, similar organisations such as the WCC, which is led by a lot of gender equality women, they pushed the Kerala government to pass a sanction, the Hema committee report that has come out in 2024 to talk about the pervasiveness of inequality, discrimination against women in the film industry, and sexual harassment, which has gone amok in our film industry”, said Kumar.

“We, in Karnataka yesterday, from FIRE, after getting 153 names of people in the film industry and outside, all people who believe in gender rights and gender equality and gender justice, women and men and transgender, we have all put it up that we want a Hema committee report of our own in Karnataka from a retired judge as commissioned commitment to a gender rights and gender justice. And we want that at the earliest. We want that three to four months. We want you to get that out”, he added.

He requested Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to consider a similar committee report for the Karnataka film industry, emphasising the need for a retired judge to lead the commission.

“And we believe Siddaramaiah government. Please pass a kind of committee report like the way Kerala government has shown. It’s not that Kerala government is a better government than the Karnataka government. We show that anybody who fights for rights of human beings and women in deprived sections will stand for that. And Karnataka government and Siddaramaiah administration will also sanction such a report for our Karnataka film industry and women, sexual harassment, women inequality anywhere in the state”, he continued.

Last month, a redacted version of the Justice Hema Committee report on the harassment faced by women in the Malayalam cinema industry was made public. It contained shocking accounts of harassment, exploitation, and mistreatment of women professionals.

The 235-page report, published after redacting the names of witnesses and the accused, notes that the Malayalam film industry is controlled by about 10 to 15 male producers, directors, and actors who dominate and exert control over the industry.

The report of the three-member panel headed by a former judge of the Kerala High Court and set up by the state government in 2017, was submitted to the Pinarayi-led Kerala government in December 2019 and made public only this month.

The government has formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate the hardships faced by women in the industry. (ANI)