It is highly immoral to divulge the darker side of life simply to make money
Dr Aruna Broota
Consulting clinical psychologist
I get very upset when I watch this new TV serial Sach Ka Saamna.
It should have been titled Apne Ko Bechna! This serial has had a most deleterious impact on our society and family relations. India has always been celebrated for its social integrity, moral values and strong family bonding. Many things happen in life. But it is wrong to divulge the darker side of it simply to make money. It was painful to hear the anchor asking the participant whether he would sleep with another woman if he was sure his wife would not come to know of it. And it was just as painful to hear the participant responding in the affirmative and the “yes” being followed by frenzied clapping from the audience. Then the anchor wanted to know whether he had had physical relations with a girl younger than his own daughter! Yes, said the man, to more loud clapping.
All this should shame the serial’s producers to their feet. I ask, is this anything to rejoice about? It is quite possible that the man’s daughter is mature enough to listen to such stuff — but what about children from conservative and close knit families? Don’t you think they would feel traumatised?
My work is with children, mainly adolescent girls. I know their psychology well — know that they watch this programme very keenly. Not because they enjoy its contents, but because they like seeing the participants making money from their confessions. For these children too want to make easy money — the means be damned.
It is being said that the serial has been adapted from an internationally acclaimed show called Moment of Truth, which has a huge fan following in the United States. Well it may suit the American mindset which holds private space to be sacred. I can understand that. Nor for that matter am I averse to having a relationship myself. There is nothing in the least wrong with that and it is good to be pragmatic. Also, many of our young boys and girls spend 8 to 12 hours working in liberal workplaces. But then all of us, including them, have been brought up in a culture that is poles apart from that of the Americans.
It is quite obvious that the worst sufferers are the programme’s adolescent viewers. Just imagine what it must be doing to their minds! To think that such puerile confessions earn them Rs 1 crore — the bait the programmers dangle before their audiences, all of whom are dying to become crorepatis overnight!
No one will dispute that these stage managed shows grossly violate the sanctity of conjugal life; or that they pollute young and vulnerable minds. Yes, what are we teaching our children through such vulgar tamashas? Remember that in children and adolescents hormonal changes occur at a much faster rate than in adults; and more particularly in girls, who these days become physically active at age nine. All the more reason why these shows should be banned, seeing how deeply they damage child-parent ties. Such recklessness is a sure recipe for destroying familial ties.
Sex can be very beautiful when it is controlled and there is no vulgarity in it. And well, if in these fast-paced times we can’t stop such shows, we can at least do them in a way so that the damage is minimal. But then that calls for sensitive monitoring, which is completely absent here. We all know how little the censor board does about such content. And after the advent of internet, there is absolutely no control over content, which circulates freely in cyberspace. Go to Google and see it for yourself. My question is simply this: if one can’t watch a show with our families, why allow them to be made at all? Of course, as I said, adults are hurt much less than children whose ability to discriminate between good and evil is extremely limited. One day the father of a girl came to my clinic and started talking about the DPS MMS scandal. His daughter was sitting right in front of me, and there he was asking me whether I had seen the offensive MMS clipping. I said hadn’t and felt no desire to see it either. But just imagine what must have been going on inside the mind of this little girl.
Dr Aruna Broota
Consulting clinical psychologist
I get very upset when I watch this new TV serial Sach Ka Saamna.
It should have been titled Apne Ko Bechna! This serial has had a most deleterious impact on our society and family relations. India has always been celebrated for its social integrity, moral values and strong family bonding. Many things happen in life. But it is wrong to divulge the darker side of it simply to make money. It was painful to hear the anchor asking the participant whether he would sleep with another woman if he was sure his wife would not come to know of it. And it was just as painful to hear the participant responding in the affirmative and the “yes” being followed by frenzied clapping from the audience. Then the anchor wanted to know whether he had had physical relations with a girl younger than his own daughter! Yes, said the man, to more loud clapping.All this should shame the serial’s producers to their feet. I ask, is this anything to rejoice about? It is quite possible that the man’s daughter is mature enough to listen to such stuff — but what about children from conservative and close knit families? Don’t you think they would feel traumatised?
My work is with children, mainly adolescent girls. I know their psychology well — know that they watch this programme very keenly. Not because they enjoy its contents, but because they like seeing the participants making money from their confessions. For these children too want to make easy money — the means be damned.
It is being said that the serial has been adapted from an internationally acclaimed show called Moment of Truth, which has a huge fan following in the United States. Well it may suit the American mindset which holds private space to be sacred. I can understand that. Nor for that matter am I averse to having a relationship myself. There is nothing in the least wrong with that and it is good to be pragmatic. Also, many of our young boys and girls spend 8 to 12 hours working in liberal workplaces. But then all of us, including them, have been brought up in a culture that is poles apart from that of the Americans.
It is quite obvious that the worst sufferers are the programme’s adolescent viewers. Just imagine what it must be doing to their minds! To think that such puerile confessions earn them Rs 1 crore — the bait the programmers dangle before their audiences, all of whom are dying to become crorepatis overnight!
No one will dispute that these stage managed shows grossly violate the sanctity of conjugal life; or that they pollute young and vulnerable minds. Yes, what are we teaching our children through such vulgar tamashas? Remember that in children and adolescents hormonal changes occur at a much faster rate than in adults; and more particularly in girls, who these days become physically active at age nine. All the more reason why these shows should be banned, seeing how deeply they damage child-parent ties. Such recklessness is a sure recipe for destroying familial ties.
Sex can be very beautiful when it is controlled and there is no vulgarity in it. And well, if in these fast-paced times we can’t stop such shows, we can at least do them in a way so that the damage is minimal. But then that calls for sensitive monitoring, which is completely absent here. We all know how little the censor board does about such content. And after the advent of internet, there is absolutely no control over content, which circulates freely in cyberspace. Go to Google and see it for yourself. My question is simply this: if one can’t watch a show with our families, why allow them to be made at all? Of course, as I said, adults are hurt much less than children whose ability to discriminate between good and evil is extremely limited. One day the father of a girl came to my clinic and started talking about the DPS MMS scandal. His daughter was sitting right in front of me, and there he was asking me whether I had seen the offensive MMS clipping. I said hadn’t and felt no desire to see it either. But just imagine what must have been going on inside the mind of this little girl.
