'Ensure safety of women in entertainment industry'

Amid a series of #MeToo allegations from the entertainment industry, a Parliamentary panel has rued lack of specific provisions to ensure the safety of working women and recommended stringent penal provisions to deal with it.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour has said that "one glaring omission" in The Cine-Workers and Cinema Theatre Workers (Regulation of Employment) Act 1981 is the lack of "any specific provision" for the safety and security of women working in broadcasting and digital entertainment workers. The panel said this has "captured the committee's attention".

The panel headed by BJP MP Kirit Somaiya said the cine industry employs a large number of women workers who "work in close proximity to their male counterparts and that too in odd hours".

"While lauding the mental and physical strength of the women cine workers but being aware of their vulnerability at the workplace, committee exhort upon the Ministry of Labour and Employment to put in place specific safeguards catering to the safety and security of female workers in good time and come up with stringent penal provisions that would act as a deterrent," the panel said.

In recent months, a clutch of cine-artistes and filmmakers, including Nana Patekar faced allegations of sexual harassment by women artist associated with the entertainment industry. Allegations against Patekar by actress Tanushree had triggered an avalanche of #MeToo charges in various sectors

On digital entertainment sector, the committee also noted that there has been high growth leading to the need for specification of workers in the sector urgently.

Asked whether the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has framed any guidelines on outsourcing of work by TV channels, the Ministry has said the channels are free to produce their content in any manner.

In its observations, the committee said the Ministry of Labour and Ministry of Information and Broadcasting work in unison to ensure that the welfare and safety of this vital sector is "never compromised" and is "adequately taken care of, as it is the toil of these workers which is never accorded its due as they are always behind the lens and not in front of it."