Producers Guild forms committee to address workplace sexual harassment

The Producers Guild of India has formed a special 12 member committee to look into matters of sexual harassment at workplace within the film industry. An official press release informed that the guild is committed to ensure safe work space for everyone.

The committee, headed by Sneha Rajani will include Rohan Sippy, Siddharth Roy Kapur, Apoorva Mehta, Ekta Kapoor and Kiran Rao among others.

The committee, in its first meeting has resolved to send a copy of the Gazette notification on the law regarding Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace so that the norms are properly implemented.

The guild will also arrange workshops to guide industry members on how to implement best practices to deal to sexual harassment at workplaces. The committee has decided to meet frequently in the coming months to ensure that this ongoing and sustained effort leads to a safer work environment for industry members.

This comes at a time when the #MeToo movement has caught rapid pace in India as women have came out in numbers to share their stories of horrific sexual assault and harassment across different field of life in the society.

The movement took a big step when actress Tanushree Dutta accused ace actor Nana Patekar of harassment during a film shoot way back in 2008. Following this, a number of women came forward and alleged various actors, directors, journalists, bureaucrats, political leaders etc. of sexual harassment.

The latest people who have been drawn in the #MeToo movement for alleged sexual harassment include actors Alok Nath, Nana Patekar, Rajat Kapoor, Directors Sajid Khan, Vikash Bahl, Luv Ranjan, Subhash Ghai, Politician MJ Akbar and others to name a few.