Bollywood singer Rekha Bhardwaj has criticised the treatment of children on music-based reality shows. In a string of tweets, Rekha complained about the competitive/vote-based approach to nurturing talent.
“I am not able to understand why there is so much drama in Music reality shows,” Rekha wrote, “What disappoints me and saddens me is that rather than guiding these kids to treat music as Ibaadat/Prayer we are teaching them to compete /ask for votes/ learn to look glamorous ... in the name of Guru Shishya Parampara we are using their age and spoiling their innocence.”
She ended by reiterating that nobody is concerned about the future of these kids, and urged children to focus on their craft instead of being used as a commodity. Earlier this year, The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting had issued an advisory to TV channels to desist from showing children in a ‘vulgar, indecent, suggestive and inappropriate manner’ on dance reality shows.