NDMC panel to screen ads

25-member body to check for content 'harmful' to kids

An NDMC committee will soon begin screening advertisements in print and electronic media that may have content “harmful” to children.

The council plans to set up a 25-member committee around Children’s Day on November 14. 

The NDMC is linking the move with efforts to sensitise children against advertisements objectifying women, discriminating against girls, reinforcing racial stereotypes and showing violence. 

The panel will have no teeth. But it will bring the “offending advertisements” to the notice of the Union Information and Broadcasting Ministry and the National Commission of Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), hoping that they take action.

“Children are the worst sufferers of advertisements that impact their minds negatively,” said Vidushi Chaturvedi, Director of Education, New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC).

Teachers and principals from NDMC and external schools will constitute the core committee. The members will check advertisements that they think are “harmful to young minds” and prevent their exposure to such “unregulated materials”.

“Besides advertisements on billboards, newspapers, televisions and radio, we are also planning to focus on mobile ads and social media, which have unleashed an excess of unregulated material,” said Chaturvedi.

“A social forum will help put pressure on the authorities concerned to take notice and action. The documentations will be brought to the notice of the I&B Ministry and the  NCPCR and build pressure to review the advertisements,” said Chaturvedi. 

According to the council department, advertisements unfit for children play a significant role in tampering with young minds.

In the wake of several cases of molestations in city schools, the NDMC is also planning to organise a sensitisation programme around Children’s Day.

“We will organise an inter-school workshop where teachers and other staff will be sensitised. Handbooks will be given to the staff to sensitise them on children issues. Basic child protection rights will also be mentioned in the handbooks,” said Chaturvedi.