Stature of child artists in Indian entertainment industry is on the rise — but how does it affect their personal lives?
-Sumati Thusoo And Vedika Inamdar
Anecdotes of former child artists suggest that there exists a 'dark underbelly' of the lives of children who are thrust into glamour and fame very early on in their lives.
Picture Credit: News Nine
Following the sharp increase in child-centric content on both television and streaming platforms in India, the stature of child artists has been elevated to central characters holding up entire plots in both films and teleserial. Some of the recent examples of these are Vriti Vaghani and Pratyaksh Panwar from Hotstar’s crime-thriller drama Aarya, Aakshath Das from Netflix’s satirical comedy-drama Serious Men, Vedant Sinha from Amazon Prime Video’s Manoj Bajpayee-starrer thriller The Family Man, amongst others. As the number of child artists in the film and television industries is growing, there has been a growing concern within the child rights organisations regarding the rights of child artists, their working conditions, and the impact of working on the development of children.
India is one of the few countries that have tailored responses to children working in the audio-visual entertainment industry including advertisements, films, teleserials etc (except the circus). Despite such legislative arrangements and other child protection policies, there are hardly any studies on child artists working in films and teleserial, and how it affects their lives. Anecdotes of former child artists suggest that there exists a ‘dark underbelly’ of the lives of children who are thrust into glamour and fame very early on in their lives.
For instance, the former actress Daisy Irani spoke about being raped by the man appointed as her guardian at the age of 6 while shooting for a film named Hum Panchhi Ek Daal Ke. Similarly, a 15 years old Rekha was forcibly kissed by then 30 years old actor Biswajeet while shooting Anjana Safar, later named Do Shikari.
Despite these anecdotes being public knowledge, information pertaining to the conditions in which present-day child artists work is minimal and is limited to a few news articles in the popular press. Given this scattered discourse, a recent mixed-methods study in India by Monk Prayogshala and Child Rights and You (CRY) estimates the size of the sector and provides an overall situational analysis of conditions in which child artists work.
It also contains recommendations to make film sets and studios child-friendly in nature. It draws on rich qualitative data using in-depth interviews with relevant stakeholders. The study identified six major stakeholders: Acting academies, Guilds/Associations, Producers/Directors, Former Child Artists, Parents of Child Artists, and Casting Agents.
Currently, child artists are governed by the Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act (CALPRA), 1986 which has been supplemented by the guidelines issued by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) which is the apex body for child rights in the country. The CALPRA, 1986 is the main legislation pertaining to child labour which was amended in 2016 in light of India ratifying two conventions of the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
The 2016 amendment to the CALPRA, 1986 introduced a variety of measures meant to financially, emotionally, socially and psychologically safeguard children engaged in the media and entertainment industry broadly. As per Part III of the CALPRA, producers of television shows, advertisements, or films need to comply with a longer list of requirements that are meant to ensure fair working conditions for the child under the age of 14 years. This includes being accountable to the District Magistrate (DM) in terms of reporting on working conditions for the child artist.
The NCPCR 2011 published a set of guidelines to regulate child participation in TV serials, reality shows and advertisements to ensure the welfare of children (aged 0-18 years) in the film/television industry. The guidelines recognise that having children participating in an adult-oriented industry can expose them to unexpected anxieties and unsuitable situations, resulting in physical and emotional stress, which ideally should not be borne by children at all.
The key issues it addresses varied from the content of programmes involving children to defining age-related norms for the participation of children to ensuring the physical, mental, and emotional conditions and safety of children, among others. The NCPCR guidelines were revised in June 2022 to bring other platforms such as films, TV, reality shows, streaming platforms, news and content creation for social media websites under the ambit of these guidelines. These new guidelines aim to simplify the procedure for all stakeholders and to create awareness of the repercussions in case of a violation.
The findings from the study point toward the lack of implementation of the law. The CALPRA, 1986 states that no child shall be allowed to work for more than five hours in a day, and for not more than three hours without rest (Rule 2C(1)(a)). Former child artists, their parents, producers, and casting directors consistently told us that typically, a child’s work shift stretches to 12-13 hours six days a week. When parents of the child artists enter into formal contracts (which, according to producers, is only done at the request of the parents), the terms of the contracts include payments and shooting hours.
It has been claimed by parents that the contracts only safeguard the interests of the producers, as they mention all the child-friendly guidelines on paper which are barely adhered to. The study also found that child artists are mostly accompanied by their parents or guardians to the set but none of the production houses or coaching centres has any formal child protection guidelines in place, which goes against Rule 2C(1)(e) of CALPRA, 1986. The rule mandates the appointment of one person for a maximum of five children for the production or event, so as to ensure the protection, care and best interest of the child.
In the absence of a formal monitoring agency, it is left to well-intentioned bodies such as The Cine & TV Artistes’ Association (CINTAA) to take up grievance redressal related to child artists. CINTAA also mentioned that they have come across cases where the parents have discontinued formal education of child artists.
As per rules under CALPRA, 1986 at least 20 per cent of the income earned by the child from the production or event is to be directly deposited in a fixed deposit account in a nationalised bank in the name of the child which may be credited to the child on attaining majority. However, the remuneration for child artists is handled by their parents and is often left to their discretion on how it is utilised. In cases where the child artist is the sole breadwinner of the family or the family does not have permanent accommodation in Mumbai, retaining 20 per cent of the payment in a fixed deposit seems highly unlikely.
There is also a lack of awareness regarding the regulatory and monitoring mechanisms that are included in the Act. The parents interviewed for the study thought that it was CINTAA’s responsibility to do periodic inspections at shoot locations, whereas it is supposed to be done by an Inspector. The reports of these routine visits are then to be submitted to the office of the District Magistrate (DM).
Additionally, none of the producers who were interviewed for the study mentioned Form C (a declaration signed by the producer in charge that states provisions under CALPRA, 1986 are not violated and the concerned child artist’s wellbeing will be a priority) which is an undertaking under The Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Rules (CALPRAaffectaffect), 1988 and is supposed to be submitted to the DM’s office before the commencement of the shoot.
One of the actionable findings from the report indicates the need for a central database that maintains records on child artists across the country. This will help to conduct a large-scale national study to understand the working conditions of child artists. The other recommendations included the creation of child-protection policies to ensure that production houses are aware of child artists’ rights.
To further the awareness of child artists and their rights, there should be workshops to make the on-set crew aware of child-friendly environments and of grievance redressal mechanisms, both of which must go hand in hand with creating child protection policies. Parents and guardians of child artists along with casting agents must be made aware of child protection policies, grievance redressal mechanisms and monitoring bodies to ensure that all child artists are safe, and are not in violation of child labour laws.
The other recommendations were regarding the strengthening of reporting and monitoring mechanisms to ensure adherence to the legislative instruments. This recommendation also pointed out some procedural loopholes in the Child Labour Amendment Rules, 2017. The Rules state that the producer of any audio-visual media production or any commercial event involving the participation of a child shall involve a child in participation only after obtaining permission from the DM of the district where the activity is to be performed. The Rules lay down norms for ensuring that children receive adequate rest, nutrition, and minimum disruptions in education as well as protection.
To ensure effective implementation of such rules, regular visits by the local Child Welfare Committee (CWC) and information to the DM’s office could be a way to increase adherence to the law, and accountability from production houses. Additionally, CINTAA being a trade union does not have the authority and the resources to put regulatory mechanisms pertaining to child protection in place.
While CINTAA does act as the primary forum for such complaints, it would be more appropriate for CINTAA to forward such complaints to the CWCs as well as the NCPCR and the State Commission for Protection of Child Rights for appropriate action.
This article was first published on News Nine on August 12, 2022
