REALITY TV: IT’S IMPACT ON CHILDREN

The face of Indian Television has gone through complex plastic surgeries since its birth into our
society. From a single soap Hum Log which the entire village used to watch on a single
television set, with unimaginable zeal, to the crispy sitcoms Shriman Shrimati, Dekh Bhai Dekh,
Tu Tu Main Main ,to Ekta Kapoor’s melodramatic Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi ,to the
youth centric drama Sanjeevani, the Indian audience have relished them all. Then, when these
production houses found it tough to drag their shows beyond a certain limit and plummeting
TRPs started glaring them straight in their faces, came the need and the era of something
refreshing and this “something refreshing” was our own “friendly monster” Reality Television.

Reality Television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted

dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people
instead of professional actors. These people are put in some altogether extraordinary situations or
unnerving locations and are told to act in a certain way by the story editors, so that they are able
to strike an emotional chord with the gullible glue watchers of TV. Highly sensitized and overtly
manipulated, these scripted realities are responsible for spoiling the smooth fabric of our society,
thus encouraging money mindedness, voyeurism and sadistic pleasure. Some popular types of
reality shows are game shows, talent hunts, dating shows, supernatural and paranormal shows,
talk shows, etc. These shows, despite all criticism, have become an essential part of our daily
lives and a spicy topic of idle gossip at social gatherings.

But amid all the gala time we’re having, what we fail to realize, is that we’re harming our naive
ones big time. Children with their impressionable minds and over sensitive nature susceptible to
the slightest of forces, become hapless victims of these scripted realities. Having no sense of
discrimination between right and wrong, reality and fiction, they tend to believe in whatever they
see on the silver screen and try to emulate the protagonists instinctively. And this, most of the
times becomes dangerous, both to their moral system as well as to their precious lives. Shows
like Emotional Atyachar, Khatron Ke Khiladi and Roadies are very much responsible for these
kind of mishappenings. Recently a game show, Sach Ka Samna starred by the TV channel Star
Plus was taken off air by the government for showing unethical and corrupt content harmful for
the innocent minds and unacceptable to various strata of our society.

As far as the child participants are concerned, they are no less victimized than their viewer
counterparts. Talent Hunt shows like Jhalak Dikh Laa Jaa, India’s Got Talent, etc. are
responsible for playing dirty and grave with the physical and emotional health of children.
Though these shows play a very positive role in providing our talented Indian kids with a
platform, rather really huge, to showcase their uncapped talents, compete with the tough world
and thus fulfill their cherished dreams, but all that doesn’t come without paying an unreasonably
high price. It is observed that the child participants in these shows are subject to strenuous
routine of continuous singing and dancing, exposed to harsh lights for long hours and victimized
by the harsh and unnecessary jibes by the judges on board. In 2008, a sixteen year old girl,
Shinjini sunk into depression and eventually was paralyzed after being severely rebuked by the
judges in a Bengali dance reality show. Shockingly, facts about the girl’s asthmatic condition,
were hidden by the parents from the concerned authorities. Here, though the parents are to be
rightly blamed for prioritizing expected and much dreamt of fame over their child’s safety, but
this case validates the need of a strict medical examination of the participants prior to being
allowed to participate, something which is completely missing in these shows. Such talent shows
are not completely undesirable, provided they do not let child participation become CHILD
LABOUR , for we want more Abhijit Sawants, Shreya Ghoshals and Sunidhi Chahans rather
than another Shinjini out of their profit flooded pockets.

All said, making hay while the sun shines though with precaution and responsibility is the need
of the tough hour. Television production houses need to realize that, they, being the biggest form
of media, have huge social responsibilities to fulfill- towards children, towards households, and
towards society, for they can’t escape scot-free from the sharp glare of the society and law. And
our budding flowers need to be loved, taken the best care of, and emboldened enough to traverse
the rough patches ahead ,with their minds free and heads held high!!!