Reality Shows & Children

Reality shows are the growing trend on television these days in India. Some shows have children participants. Many of them are dance competitions or singing competitions or comedy shows where audience is to vote through SMS and judges are also there to evaluate them.

Some days back I was watching a similar reality show where after the child was done with his singing, the judge commented "Beta aapne bahut accha gaya .. par jo expressions the woh nahi aaye" . I was shocked at his statement, was it right on his part to expect the correct expressions of the song from the child? Should a child at the age of 10 know and understand the expressions required for a love song and sing accordingly? Not at all. I felt the judge was irresponsible while making this statement, all he could have done was evaluated the song on the basis of taal and sur; the expressions weren't required for that type of song at that young age. 

I think children should be made to sing  some some devotional , patriotic songs or the ones which are made exclusively for children; though I feel there arent many considering the Hindi film industry. Their Marathi counterparts are better off when it comes to reality shows, I remember the Little champs "sa re ga ma pa", it was very well managed by the host and the judges. On one such occasion, the judge Vaishali Samant had commented that she did not expect the children to sing with expressions when it comes to such songs.

Moreover the parents also need to understand before exposing the children to the harshness of the reality shows. Some parents are eager to see their children perform on television, but at the cost of what ... their innocence? It makes me wonder where as a society we are heading? On one side we have removed the merit list to reduce the competition and stress levels of children and on the other side we are exposing them to the competitive world at a very young age. Isn't there already enough competition once you grow up?