'Parents should not send children to reality shows'

Holding that the reality shows were violating rights of children, the Union Minister says that parents should be prevented from sending their children to such shows.

Holding that the reality shows were violating rights of children, Union Minister for Woman and Child Development Renuka Chowdhury on Tuesday said that parents should be prevented from sending their children to such shows.

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Referring to Shinjini Sengupta, a teenage girl in Kolkata who became partially paralysed allegedly after being publicly humiliated at a reality show, the minister said despite knowing that the girl had a problem in her spinal chord, her parents had sent her to the show.

"The other day, I saw a tiny girl suggestively gyrating to a song whose meaning she obviously did not know. What do we say to parents sending their children to such shows?" Chowdhury said at a workshop on Amendment to the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, 1986.

Pointing out that women become instruments of oppression of their own gender in many cases owing to lack of awareness, she said, "My biggest challenge is not so much to educate men but women. They deserve kudos for keeping up the family life despite so much oppression at home."