Kid abuse glare on Rakhi show
Rakhi Sawant’s new programme Pati Patni Aur Woh has earned the wrath of women and child development minister Krishna Tirath for “child rights abuse” after a Delhi-based NGO filed a complaint against the NDTV Imagine show, which went on air on Monday.
“We believe that the show treats children and toddlers in an inhuman manner and we will push for it to be taken off air immediately,” Rahul Varma, co-founder of Uday Fountain, told The Telegraph.
NDTV Imagine isn’t ready to give up without a fight. “We have received a notice from the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) asking us to stop the telecast of the show Pati Patni Aur Woh immediately. Their view is that child rights have been violated during the production of this show,” the channel said in a statement today.
“NCPCR has not approached either NDTV Imagine or BBC (the format owner and producer of the show) to seek any clarifications…. We are not in agreement with NCPCR’s position and we will take all appropriate steps to protect our broadcast rights.”
The Indian version of the international show Baby Borrowers, has Sawant and her beau Elesh Parujanwala and four other celebrity couples playing “parents” to children as young as six months or less for a month, keeping them away from their real-life parents.
“The show depicts novice actors trying to pacify a crying toddler. This is an act of extreme negligence and abuse towards a child who is wrenched from a familiar environment and thrust into the hands of complete strangers,” said Varma who is planning a symbolic protest on Monday.
Similar protests have led to the ban of Baby Borrowers in a number of countries, including the UK.
