Pressure has been turned on the Kerala government. After the High Court, the National Commission for Women (NCW) also demanded the full version of the Hema Committee report, which was sealed away due to confidentiality issues.
Considering the nature of complaints, mostly involving sexual abuses and harassment in the Malayalam film industry, the NCW said in a statement that it has ''taken steps to seek the complete Hema Committee report, as it appears that only parts of it are currently available in the public domain.''
The NCW said it was ''committed to furthering its efforts in addressing these matters with the appropriate authorities to ensure that women's rights are upheld and that a safe, equitable working environment is fostered within the industry.''
On August 22, the High Court of Kerala forced the hand of the state government by demanding it to produce both the published and unpublished parts of the report in a sealed cover. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, while defending his government's position in withholding a part of the report from the public domain, said such was the request made by Justice Hema herself.
Pinarayi cited a letter reportedly sent by Justice Hema seeking absolute confidentiality for the survivors to keep the names of the predators, too, hidden.
He had said the government could not take action until the women came forward with complaints. This had put the onus on the victims, some of whom had told the Hema Committee that going ahead with their complaints could have put even their lives, forget jobs, in danger.
The state government had constituted the Committee in 2017 after an assault of a leading female actor in Ernakulam. Meanwhile, The seven-member SIT probe, which was announced in the last week of August, is ongoing.
