The child actor whose contract in a popular TV serial was ended abruptly following the intervention of the Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, is now back in action. So the Commission, which is planning to monitor the new serial in Mazhavil Manorama channel ‘Malootty.’ The process of regulating content in serials is rather tedious as Television is not covered in the Cinematograph Act. “We are not for moral policing. However TV serials should not dignity of children ,” saya Commission Chairperson Shobha Koshy. In the case of the Mazhavil Manorama serial, the Commission had complained to the Broadcast Content Complaints Council (BCCC) that the channel was violating the Indian Broadcasting Foundation’s (IBF) self-regulation guidelines.
The first episode of the serial was a Cinderella-like story in which its child protagonist an adopted child would be ill-treated by its step mother. The guidelines stipulate that the “programmes should not in any manner show sense involving children in violence as victims or as perpetrators or as forced witnesses to violence or being subjected to any form of child abuse.” The new serial depicts the story of a child caught between two parents who are on the verge of a separation. Its Director S S Lal saya that they have been careful about their portrayal of the child character.
