Not just sexual harassment, need a place to say about the bad experiences suffered, Malayalees should have done that long ago, says Rima Kallingal

KOCHI: Actress Rima Kallingal said it is unbelievable that there has never been a place in a state like Kerala for women in the film industry to open up about their bad experiences. The internal committee is one that can be made very easily. The Keralites should have done that a long time ago, she said. Rima clarified her stand while talking at the open forum of IFFK in Kochi.

‘When we started discussing the concept of an internal committee, we formed an IC in the film Virus and executed it. This is one of the easiest things to do. You need to find exactly three people. One of them should be an activist, a woman, someone who knows legal aspects and an adult.

When we bring a workplace together and bring a lot of people into a film production space, it only needs the mentality that the place should be flawless. I do not want to limit it to sexual abuse. It is unbelievable that there has not been a place in a state like Kerala to say about the bad experiences suffered. We should have done this long ago.

If you take a picture of a movie set, we will see only one or two women in it. That is why the WCC is putting pressure on all workers in the sector for an IC, even though the Vaishakh Internal Committee has made guidelines giving them more prominence.

All unions must take action to find out exactly what sexual harassment is taking place in the workplace. The guidelines prepared by Vaishakh clearly state the comments coming from the set while working and talking in such a way that there is a possibility of not getting a job fall into the same category, she said.