Pat, Patni aur Woh

'Infants exploited in reality show'
Vineeta Pandey & Soumyadipta Banerjee

Mumbai: The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights and the Women and Child Development ministry (WCD) has asked NDTV Imagine to stop the telecast of reality show, Pati, Patni Aur Woh.

The commission (NCPCR) and the ministry felt the show was 'violating the norms of child rights by exploiting children'. The show, inspired by Baby Borrowers is about parenting: five couples have to look after babies who are not theirs.

Sandhya Bajaj, a member of the commission, said infants shown in the programme were not the biological children of the participants. So, they cannot be given to other people for 24 hours, Bajaj said.

The parents of the children watch the proceedings through CCTVs. "Even though the parents of the children watch what is happening, the makers cannot separate them from their biological parents," minister Krishna Tirath of WCD said. "The makers cannot exploit and harass children just for the sake of making a serial."

Bajaj said the commission had got complaints from lawyers, parents, and doctors when they were about to take a suo motu action against the channel. "These children cannot speak. The promos show them crying, which indicates they are protesting. But
no one is listening. Also, the programme doesn't convey any social message."

Various NGOs too have highlighted the health hazards to newborns and toddlers in the programme. "Separating babies from their parents for a long time can lead to distress and anxiety among children," Uday Foundation for Congenital Defects and Rare Blood Groups, an NGO in Delhi, said in its complaint. "After prolonged separation, a child can have a feeling of distrust for his/her primary caregiver. It can damage a child's sense of safety."

The commission has written to the Information and Broadcasting minister Ambika Soni to take action against the channel.

The channel, however, is ready to take the legal route if necessary. "I have checked with the BBC -- the producers of the show. They too haven't received any letter. I don't know how such a notice can be issued without any intimation," Shailaja Kejriwal, senior vice president of NDTV Imagine, said. "We are not going to take the show off air.

There's no question of that. We have a written consent from the parents. There is a nursewho lives nearby, and there are doctors and ambulances on stand-by."

The channel heads will meet on Friday to discuss the matter, another official said.

First they make a mockery of marriage by airing the show of Rakhi Sawant's marriage.
The embers have hardly died of the couples romance when they are handed over somebody else's baby to act in a baby show.
On the sideline now we have Rahul Mahajan following Rakhi Sawant's footsteps to enact his marrriage.
I am sorry to say it but in India we consider marriage as sacrosanct and not a few days affair with pre-nuptial agreements, invariably ending in divorces.
NDTV is playing with fire when it is airing these topics.
We have not reached the stage where we consider marriage as a joke.
Maybe in a few years from now when we make ourselves more decadent (some call it enlightened) we may get to accept it with all its faults. But spare us from these for now.
I am happy to note that the Rajeev Kandelwal Show, Sach ka Samna has been yanked off the air.
This was a vulgar show out to tiintillate the baser feelings for commercial gain not caring for family values and the repercussions on family life. It took a few suicides for the show to be taken off the air.
Everything in the west is not good.
Siddhartha Basu should realize that and not ape them brainlessly.