The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has on Thursday issued a notice to the subscription-based streaming service provider – Netflix, directing it to stop streaming the new web series ‘Bombay Begums’ citing inappropriate portrayal of children in the series.
The NCPCR has further directed the OTT platform to furnish a detailed action report within 24 hours, failing which, the notice says, it will be constrained to initiate appropriate legal action.
The issue with Web Series ‘Bombay Begums’
Bombay Begums, a six-part series launched on Netflix on March 8, follows five women staring Pooja Bhatt, Shahana Goswami, Amruta Subhash, Plabita Borthakur, Aadhya Anand, Rahul Bose, Vivek Gomber, and Danish Husain, whose lives interlock in Mumbai. Directed by Lipstick Under My Burkha filmmaker Alankrita Shrivastava, the show explores ambition, a working woman’s efforts to maintain a work-life balance, and her complex relationships with men, women, colleagues, bosses, children, and her own body.
The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights said it received a complaint from two Twitter handles about some scenes of the show. “From normalization of minors indulging in casual sex we now hate web series showing minors having cocaine,” the child rights body quoted one of the tweets. “Screengrab from Bombay Begums where a 13-year-old is snorting coke as the party she goes to is all about alcohol, drugs.”
Objecting to the alleged inappropriate portrayal of children in the series, the commission said that this type of content will not only pollute the young minds but may also result in the abuse and exploitation of children. Further, the notice cited a tweet by a Twitter account called Gems of Bollywood, which objected to the portrayal of the fantasies of children.
“Netflix should take extra precaution while streaming any content in respect of the children or for the children and shall also refrain themselves from getting into such things,” the commission said in its notice.
“Therefore, you are directed to look into this matter and immediately stop streaming of this series and furnish a detailed action report within 24 hours, failing which the Commission will be constrained to initiate appropriate action pursuant to the provisions of Section 14 of the CPCR (Commission for Protection of Child Rights) Act, 2005,” the commission added.
