IN SOLIDARITY WITH #MeToo, BUT WHAT ABOUT MY LIFE?

(This is by Rajesh Touchriver in response to the #MeToo allegations which I had blogged on 22-10-2018, posting it here as I think this response should also be known)

It is around 8 months now that a newcomer actor alleged that I have mentally harassed her, discriminated her based on gender, passed sexist remarks and blackmailed her. She also alleges that I sent her an inappropriate message ‘ready to dance’ at midnight. In these last 8 months, she has alleged another short film director of patriarchal bias…and now she accuses a senior actor in Malayalam industry of inappropriate behavior that happened in 2016.  

For the better part of the last eight months I was shooting and thereafter busy with post-production work, so I did not have time or energy to respond to these allegations. And then I also waited to see whether the person is making any complaint to a legally competent body so that I can present my facts there. In the absence of any formal complaint, I am confused, how am I supposed to clear my name. Now with these new set of allegations against a senior actor and my name being repeated a hundred times over, maybe as a troll but still my name; I am left with a situation where allegations are pasted in public memory (for short term or long term the time will tell) again & again. Finally I have to break my silence!

I am making a conscious choice of not mentioning the name of the person for the simple reason that I have no axe to grind with this person. And my present statement is just a statement of facts based on the behavior of the person on my sets and should not be taken in any way to point out at the character of the person.

I have known this newcomer by telephone contact from 2016 as she was referred by a common associate in the industry. Although she kept in touch requesting for a break I could not accommodate her as she was not suitable for any of the characters for the Telugu film I was making at the time. In 2018, for my new bi-lingual film there was character of a female police officer that suited the look of this person. I invited her for an audition to Bhubneshwar. She came to Bhubneshwar with her mother. On the completion of audition when she was selected, I was told by this person that she had taken a lot of debt to reach for the audition and cannot go back . Since many of the cast & crew were already in Odisha, I requested the Producer of the film to provide her accommodation so that she can be part of the rehearsals. This is her first feature film.

When the shoot started everything was fine, this person due to language problem was mostly around my technicians and makeup persons who were from Kerala. There was easy comradeship, jokes and light banter on the sets in an otherwise very stressful shooting schedule.

The stress triggered due to multiple reasons but one of the many was the limited dates the lead actor could give for this film. All efforts were being made to complete his scenes. Since we were working on tight budgets all supporting actors were asked to reach the location in the morning itself and as per the situation the combination scenes were completed. This is when the problem started with this person, she started throwing tantrums on the sets, abusing the Managers that she was being made to wait for her scenes and why couldn’t she come to the sets when her scenes would start. When complaints started pouring in from others about her behavior, a senior actor even counseled her and advised her to understand the shooting conditions and pressures involved as she is just starting her career in the industry. 

When finally, the scenes where this person has to perform started, I was faced with a bigger crises, this person did not like any feedback or correction.

I live & breathe cinema and I was in no way going to compromise on the performances. But this person would start crying in front of all the crew and stage walkouts from the set. Out of sheer frustration, I started sending her messages on ‘whatsapp’ my feedback about her performance and what needs to be done to correct it.  My messages both appreciated her good performances and criticized her bad performance (screenshots of all the messages available).

As the shooting schedule was rigorous, due to our race against time to complete the scenes of the lead actor, most often than not we would come back to our rooms only after midnight.

As I was and I am still looking at all this as a professional challenge while working with newcomers, I did not have any personal grouse then (or now) against this person, so light banter on commonly joked matters on the set continued even on whatsapp, which is the famous ‘ready to dance’ midnight message.

In the meantime I was also faced with updates from my team who complained that this person was picking fights with other supporting actors. In one such instance there was a big fight over some ice-cream. This lady abused another female actor for some ice-cream which created a big scene on the sets.

Perhaps the worst situation, I had to face was while shooting a fight scene at the beach. This person was enacting a police officer in this film and had to do a fight scene with several other actors on the beach. During the course of the shoot, watching the monitor I noticed that she was completely drenched and her upper portion of her body could be visibly seen through the drenched Tee Shirt. I asked my assistants to go and inform her to dry up and re-shoot. All my assistants refused, as by this time most of the cast & crew were not even willing to go near her. Somehow I sent an assistant with a towel to her. And I had to personally go to her and ask her to dry up and change her inners.

She immediately flared up and started accusing me that I was making comments on her body.  That was it, I lost it and give her a mouthful that this is not an ‘item number or a piece film’ for people’s bodies to be flaunted, the role is that of a police officer and all decorum for the same has to be maintained.  Somehow we completed that scene.

As we were coming closer to completion of scenes with this person, I also realized that the Producer had not paid the promised remuneration. I personally intervened and told the Producer to do the needful. Due to several factors the Producer did not immediately respond. The finally showdown came on the last day, during which my wife Sunitha Krishnan was also a witness. This person refused to act, till her payments were not cleared.

As the shot was already ready, I requested the Producer to make part payment and resolve the matter. The Producer made part payment in cash and yet this person would not budge. She demanded that the Producer gave it to her in writing that her payments will be cleared and she will be given flight charges for her return (of course the cost of the flight tickets to be deducted from her payment). As the shooting was delayed for already an hour, the Producer gave it in writing and ensured that the shooting was resumed.

I received a message from this person on her way back to airport thanking me for the support and the opportunity I gave her…little did I realize that after 2 ½ months this person will be accusing me of mental harassment and other charges, for reasons best known to her.

I am forced today to take screenshots of my ‘whatsapp’ messages and keep it safely as supporting document when the time is right to show to the world as I want people who are reading this and following this to know the exact facts and also understand how ‘truth’ can be distorted.

I am not here to defend myself, that is for  you to independently verify the truth. I also do not want to throw aspersions on anybody’s character or their professional outlook. I know as a person, I have a style in functioning, which all my actors are much aware. I cannot sweet-talk to anybody man or woman, some may call it very abrasive and rude. For me once I cast a person in a particular role, that person ceases to be a man or a woman, he/she is just an actor playing that character and I will apply all strategies to ensure that the person does justice to that character. I have witnessed tantrums from many actors and technicians on my sets and I take it in my stride as an occupational hazard.

My love for cinema is absolute…and I will continue with the same passion and commitment and in the same style albeit some modifications in my casting methods…maybe a relook on my position whether I want to take further risks providing opportunity to newcomer actors and definitely of course have code of conduct and safe-guarding procedures in all the agreements.   

And as a post-script I also want to state, my liking or not liking a person does not come in the way of my films and all cast & crew are promoted to the best of my ability.

Finally I want to take this moment to thank my wife, my family and all my friends including my actors, assistants and technicians for their unstinting love and faith in me…if not for that…this phase could have been very stressful.  

Rajesh Touchriver

DO WE NEED SHELTER HOMES FOR VICTIMS OF SEX TRAFFICKING?

The last few months has seen lot of adverse reports on the conditions of shelter homes across the country. At about the same time during this period lobbying and advocacy for the comprehensive Anti Human Trafficking Bill reached its peak after being passed in the Loksabha (lower house of the Indian parliament)  and the opponents of the Bill spoke vehemently against the ‘shelter home/ protection home’ focus of the Bill citing it as protectionist. Interestingly even a few anti trafficking advocates also raised their concerns about shelter homes as ‘incarceration’ and recommended community based rehabilitation models.

It is in this context that one is raising this question ‘do we need shelter homes for victims of sex trafficking’?

To respond to this question we need to understand, who is a sex trafficked victim? What are the damages that she has been subjected to in the process of being trafficked? What are her needs? Does she play a role in tackling the organized crime of human trafficking?

Let us be very clear at the outset itself, when we are speaking about a sex trafficked victim we are not confusing her with a person who has willingly chosen ‘sex work’ as her livelihood choice. Also it is pertinent to mention that the Indian Law does not recognize anything called as “sex work” what it recognizes is ‘prostitution’ which is defined as sexual exploitation or abuse of persons for commercial purpose.

Having said this, in a given situation of commercial sexual exploitation it is very difficult to make out the difference as most sex trafficked victims are indoctrinated by the traffickers to say that they are in that place by their willing choice and that nobody forced/coerced or lured them into this situation. And then you also have a lot of persons who might have come into this due to ‘constrained choices’ and over a period of time normalized the experience of being exploited.   

The victims are brought from different parts of the country on the pretext of love, marriage, job offers or film roles and are then threatened or intimidated to accept sexual exploitation. Once raped by a customer, most victims lose any motivation to get back to their original life. This is largely because of the patriachal gender stereotype of ‘lost honor’ for a rape victim. The victim tends to believe  ‘she has lost the most essential component in her life' and that there is no point to go back as she will be rejected and shunned by her community. The guilt that somewhere she was responsible for her situation is also heavy on her soul. This guilt is further aggravated by the fact that the keepers and beneficiaries of the trade keep reinforcing that they had only helped her when ‘she’ sought support during her times of difficulty.    

Once into the world of prostitution the life of a person is about fulfilling daily targets of entertaining customers by offering her body for sex and ensuring regular revenue for the brokers/pimps/keepers/traffickers. In this bargain she has to adopt all coping mechanisms to survive and sustain which essentially means usage of alcohol or resort to substance abuse. Most victims prefer to be intoxicated while entertaining a customer perhaps for the simple reason to forget the humiliation of indignity to their bodies and souls. The pain of multiple abortions, the humiliation of serving varied sexual needs of the buyers, the constant fear of being identified, the threat of bodily damages and health ailments and the indignity of being treated as ‘just a piece of flesh’ over a period of time gets numbed in the struggle to move on.

What is the impact of all this? If a one-time incident of abuse or sexual assault leaves a lifetime of trauma and nightmare, what could be the impact of daily rape by multiple men for a prolonged period of time, combined with helplessness and hopelessness to exit the exploitative situation by real and perceived fears.

Suffice to say that physical damages of sexually transmitted infections, cervical damages, damages to reproductive tract or the traumatic brain injuries is nothing compared to the deep-rooted psychological damages that such a world of exploitation leaves in a human being. The worst of-course being that the person believes that she is not a ‘victim’ and has normalized the experience of being exploited.

Is it possible therefore to just remove such a person from a place of exploitation and relocate her to a community and expect her to start a new life?

Well for those who do not understand trauma and its impact, they might just say ‘Why not? Provide her some community-based rehabilitation and she can start afresh!  As if none of the above has ever happened and you can just switch on or switch off from a deeply painful experience!

Anybody with a minimum sense of empathy will recognize that there is a need for interim care after a person is removed from the place of exploitation and before she is reintegrated back to the society.

So if an interim care has to be provided what should be the structure of that support?

I would say the Immoral Traffic Persons (Prevention) Act, 1956 was way ahead of its time. It recognized among other things that such victims would require specialized care and support in the form of ‘Protective Homes’, very clearly stating that the person is a ‘victim’ and not a ‘criminal defendant’

I have heard words such as ‘incarceration’ or ‘prison’ being used with reference to Protective Homes or Shelter Homes this to me indicates the person’s absolute lack of understanding of what it is to be living as a criminal defendant in a prison. And what a prison really looks and feels like. (Ask a person like me who had the privilege of living in Bangalore Central Jail for a few weeks as an under-trial!)   

When a person from the word go is accused of a crime not just in perception and attitude but also in black & white on paper, every step one takes within the confinement space is reinforcing that tag. Interaction with any person who has undergone a prison sentence either as an under-trial or a convicted offender will reveal the sense of guilt and shame that is infused into the correctional mechanism. From the living quarters, segregation, clothes, roll call, the way the food is served to the way you are addressed, there is constant reminder that you have committed a crime. Since it is a correctional structure and a person is expected to reflect on the crime they have committed and repent, one cannot really make any judgmental comment

But does the Protective Home/Shelter Home behave like a prison? Well I would say the only common component would be ‘safe custody’. And with that any common connect ends.

While the ‘prison’ reinforces multiple times in all its processes the crime committed and need for repentance, the Protective Home strives hard to make a person understand that she is a victim of grievous crime and she needs all the care and protection to build an enabling environment to start a new life.

It goes without saying, when an acutely traumatized individual who has normalized the process of exploitation enters such a ‘safe space’ she is unable to decipher the ‘rightness’ of such a space. Influenced by her keepers she will put all her efforts to escape this place. Most studies across the world have clearly shown that acute trauma affects the cognitive control of a person seriously retarding the person’s ability to cope with the situation.

Here is a person who is traumatized, is controlled by people who benefit from her body, is threatened/pressurized/indoctrinated to believe that life outside exploitation will be harmful to her, how she is supposed to behave in a safe space when she herself suffers from serious trust deficit?

Any Protective Home or a shelter puts in processes and structures for ‘safe home’ which is away from negative influences, and may look akin to ‘safe custody’ to deal with both external and internal challenges. While the external challenges mostly deal with the keepers/traffickers/pimps/organizers who live on the earnings of sexual exploitation and are hell bent to retrieve the revenue they are losing everyday by somehow getting back the woman rescued to their fold, the entire internal challenge deal with this traumatized person who is currently unable to trust the support that the ‘safe home’ has extended and feels compelled to go back to the familiar world of exploitation.

The perceived threat of the traffickers/keepers/pimps/organizers is ‘real’ as there is not only a revenue loss for all the days that the person is kept in the safe home, but the greater threat is if the person recovers from her trauma and starts healing she might even seek justice for the criminal violation she has been subjected. So for them it is a matter of life and death to get this person back.

There is no way, that a person who has been living in a world of sex slavery and has practically normalized it, can recover from that situation if she is not physically removed from the place of exploitation and kept in a safe place far away from any negative influences. Study any ‘drop in center’ operating in different parts of the world for women in prostitution. Check the rate of recovery in such places. How many women actually take an exit path after coming to a drop in center where you can come and go whenever you please. I would say hardly 1%. Living in exploitation and facing it everyday, does not leave any room for exit. One is sucked deeper and deeper into first being exploited and then exploiting others to survive. 

So for how long should a person be kept away from negative influences? While each person has its unique pace for recovery, in my experience, a period of 1-2 years with all therapeutic processes in place, is a good time for most victims to become survivors.

Does it work?  For most it works, for some it does not. And that some might also include persons who form deep attachments with their exploiters to survive and who suffer from Stockholm’s syndrome. And there are some others, unfortunately who have gone past the point of return…

Shelter Homes/Protective Homes are a vital component in providing a recovery space for any victim of sex trafficking and facilitating a safe journey for their rehabilitation. A big part of the prosecution depends on this person’s recovery to testify in the court of law against the organized crime of human trafficking especially when material evidences are rare and few. Any access to negative influence may completely make the person go hostile in the court. So a world free of Protective Homes/Shelter Homes is a world filled with trafficking with impunity.

There is no doubt that good shelter homes/protective homes are a need of the hour. The effort should be to, not discredit and create a hostile environment for homes to function but to push for better standards of care for safeguarding the rights of the persons it serves.

The everyday challenges of hostility within and outside is good enough for people running shelter homes, without adding more of it with our ignorance. Our focus should be to put in place robust monitoring systems, adequate resources to take care of the complicated needs of such victims, openness to provide viable and sustainable economic options, compassion and empathy to reintegrate the survivors as a matter of right and not as charity.

Somewhere out there if you listen carefully…you can hear the muted pleas of millions of victims of sex trafficking languishing in hell holes…they need a way out…they need a safe way out that will not put them back in the path of harm once again.