To: National Council for Protection of Child Rights (complaints.ncpcr@gmail.com)
Dear sirs,
I am writing to you to register my strong sense of outrage at an advertisement placed in the print media by the Delhi Police, as part of its supposed programme of rehabilitating street children and giving them an alternative to a life in crime.
This ad is part of a fund-raising effort by the Delhi Police for a programme which it claims, has given jobs to no less than eleven children who were otherwise destitute and without any means. The achievement that our men in uniform advertise would be rightly ridiculed by anybody who is familiar with the magnitude of the problem of child rights deprivation in this country. And at no point in the ad does the Delhi Police seek to explain if its programme is in conformity with the law prohibiting child labour.
All these are of course, minor quibbles when we consider the larger point of view that the ad represents.
Quite simply, the ad suggests that all those born in poverty are potential criminals. It further plays upon the fear and anxiety of the Indian middle-class that they are under siege and would need to actively start contributing to charities such as those run by the Delhi Police to -- partly at least -- mitigate these anxieties.
These are actions and attitudes that all citizens would have strong objections to.
Please ensure that the authors behind this grossly insensitive advertisement are reprimanded. Also, let me humbly submit, the Delhi Police as a force, needs a change in attitude to really be worthy of the authority that we as citizens of this free republic invest in it.
With best regards,
Yours etc.etc.
Dear sirs,
I am writing to you to register my strong sense of outrage at an advertisement placed in the print media by the Delhi Police, as part of its supposed programme of rehabilitating street children and giving them an alternative to a life in crime.
This ad is part of a fund-raising effort by the Delhi Police for a programme which it claims, has given jobs to no less than eleven children who were otherwise destitute and without any means. The achievement that our men in uniform advertise would be rightly ridiculed by anybody who is familiar with the magnitude of the problem of child rights deprivation in this country. And at no point in the ad does the Delhi Police seek to explain if its programme is in conformity with the law prohibiting child labour.
All these are of course, minor quibbles when we consider the larger point of view that the ad represents.
Quite simply, the ad suggests that all those born in poverty are potential criminals. It further plays upon the fear and anxiety of the Indian middle-class that they are under siege and would need to actively start contributing to charities such as those run by the Delhi Police to -- partly at least -- mitigate these anxieties.
These are actions and attitudes that all citizens would have strong objections to.
Please ensure that the authors behind this grossly insensitive advertisement are reprimanded. Also, let me humbly submit, the Delhi Police as a force, needs a change in attitude to really be worthy of the authority that we as citizens of this free republic invest in it.
With best regards,
Yours etc.etc.
No comments:
Post a Comment