Don't curb children's aims to keep them from harmful stimuli: Samir Parikh

Q&A with director of the department of mental health and behavioural sciences at Fortis Healthcare

Filmmaker Shoojit Sircar recently appealed to the authorities to ban reality television shows that involve children. His argument was that such shows can be emotionally scarring for children. SAMIR PARIKH, director of the department of mental health and behavioural sciences at Fortis Healthcare in Delhi, tells Manavi Kapur that children need to be trained to absorb the content around them in a healthy manner rather than ban a certain type of show altogether. Edited excerpts:
 
Do you agree that a reality television show that stars children ‘destroys’ them emotionally?

I don’t think blanket statements like that are fair, or even possible. Something as basic as punishment would destroy a child, so to speak. Children are and will be affected by a lot of things. For instance, children could even be scarred when their favourite sportsperson abuses on the field. But does that stop sportspersons from playing the way they do? Banning a certain type of content is not the solution.

Where does one draw the line between helping a child with his or her ambition and making the child grow up too soon?

We need to look inwards towards our own environment before questioning what is out there. Just to shield children from harmful stimuli, one cannot curtail their ambition. For instance, if an eight-year-old is a great dancer and a reality TV show gives him or her the right platform, why would a parent not support a child’s talent? Would we have the same apprehensions in the case of, say, a chess genius? Would we have stopped Sachin Tendulkar from playing cricket tournaments at a young age?

Most shows, especially those that are based on a competition model, have children imitating adults. How does this affect the children and how can this be changed?

Conceptually, schools are a competitive space — look at annual days or sports days. Competition itself is not an issue, because it also prepares the child for various challenges in the future. The difference between an average competition and reality TV is the scale of the audience. If a child dances a particular way or imitates an adult, it is because of the vulgar content available. Would you stop the child from dancing or stop the vulgar content?

Additionally, knowing those dance movements and not exhibiting them is not the end of the problem, because the child has already imbibed that. The cycle is never-ending. For this, we need strong guidelines about how children are treated in the entertainment industry as well as an element of self-regulation and governance. There will always be content available that is unsuitable for children. Parents and educators need to train children to cope with this better.

What are some measures that can be taken to safeguard them against undue stress?

Media literacy is the only way forward. One needs to create an internal locus that gives children the empowerment to filter what media they consume and how they process it, so that they themselves are able to minimise the damage. Films have glamourised smoking, which is remarkably more harmful than a child participating in a reality TV show. Similarly, children can be trained to absorb violence in the films.

There is a need for strong guidelines regarding the duration of shooting, the breaks child actors get and even what should or should not be said around a child. For example, if a child actor is struggling with stress, there should be enough assistance available to him or her to cope with it. Parents, too, should be made aware of the stress children face. They may be finicky about a child’s grades, but we don’t hear a call to ban all examinations. Instead, we need a better, more evolved framework.