The South Indian Artistes’Association (SIAA) or Nadigar Sangam finally formed a body to take sexual harassment at the workplace more seriously.
The board has formed the internal complaints committee (ICC) to handle complaints of sexual harassment from its members. A group of actors from the association met on Tuesday to hold a preliminary discussion regarding the same.
As of now, the committee includes actors Karthi, Suhasini Mani Ratnam, Rohini, Kitty alias Raja Krishnamoorthy, Poochi Murugan, Lalitha Kumari and Krishna Raveendran. In a short press release, the association had said, “A special committee has been set up by #NadigarSangam to safeguard and protect the self-respect, public life evaluation and self-esteem of artists.”
Actor Nasser who heads the Nadigar Sangam, “This is the official internal complaints committee. It will take care of the welfare and protection of women. Everybody has such a committee and we are trying to implement it too. It will be based on Vishaka guidelines but because this profession is different from any other occupations we will have to add a lot of features to it.”
The actor further added that the functioning of the committee and its members will be announced shortly.
“There will be a woman presiding officer and an external member in the committee. We are still trying to iron out details. The film industry is very different and we have to take that into account,” says Nasser.
Nadigar Sangam was in trouble when Radha Ravi’s inappropriate comments on Nayanthara stormed the internet for which the actress wrote a press release where the lady superstar had asked the Nadigar Sangam – “Will you set up the Internal Complaints Committee as per the Hon’ble Supreme Court’s dictum and commence an internal inquiry as per Vishakha Guidelines?”
The Internal Complaints Committee is to be made up of a majority of women members. The committee would include a psychologist as well, the statement said. The Nadigar Sangam assured that the ICC would be a neutral body.
Courtesy: TNM
