The Film Employees Federation of Kerala (FEFKA) on Sunday expressed shock over the revelations made by women from the industry in the K. Hema Committee report.
FEFKA general secretary B. Unnikrishnan in a letter to the secretaries of the 21 unions which are part of the federation called on them to deliberate on the report within the unions and put forward their suggestions. The FEFKA will be preparing a detailed response on the Hema committee report based on this and submit it to the State government.
“The FEFKA steering committee was convened on August 20, the day after the Hema committee report was published, to discuss it. We prepared guidelines and passed them on for all the unions to discuss. Based on these discussions, we will submit a report to the government,” Mr. Unnikrishnan told The Hindu.
The letter to the unions notes that several welcome changes have come in the industry due to the FEFKA’s efforts in the intervening years after the preparation of the committee report. It calls for discussions on some of the major issues that the report has raised, including the allegations of denial of opportunities especially to those associated with the Women in Cinema Collective (WCC), the existence of a power group and the allegations of casting couch.
Only 10 members from a total of 600 women who are part of FEFKA’s unions have deposed before the Hema committee, but it is not clear whether any of them have raised allegations of sexual exploitation, notes the letter.
Disagreements
But, the federation also put forward some of its disagreements with the report’s findings, especially regarding the circumstances that led to the formation of FEFKA. The federation had also passed on the contacts of all the FEFKA members that the Hema committee asked for, but none of them have been contacted. In the context of some generalised comments in the report, the criteria for selection of witnesses also need to be studied, says the letter.
Published - August 25, 2024 09:41 pm IST
