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Obscenity in satellite TV programmes

ERSHAD KHANDKER
THE effect of slow poison is exactly that, slow but deadly because poison is fatal. The issue of obscene dance videos is very serious. The poison simile is given to drive home that, not to sensationalise what is seemingly a social issue. I have another simile in mind. The debate on vote for the women went on for so long, yet the issue was so clear, women should get the right to vote. Our realisation sets in only after much suffering has been caused.
In the same vein, the issue of obscenity shown in Indian music videos and its serious effect on the minds of impressionable young people needs to be highlighted. The rationale of the simile of female suffrage becomes more obvious, when we see that obscenity on television touches on the issue of dignity of women, as human beings. They are not mere objects of desire as some of the videos and other programmes may depict them to be. The regulation dance videos,
on view in some of the satellite channels, seriously denigrate women.
It is so common that one can shuffle through TV channels available in Bangladesh, and one of the very first images that may prop-up is the obscene dance sequence of an Indian music video. The movie clippings, that run al most round the clock are even worse, with lurid movements and sexually explicit gestures that have socially subversive connotations. Subversive? Yes subversive because of the way the videos may subvert the normal growth of the human mind in a society like ours. And no doubt, some of the crimes on women, and so money of the crimes that are unreported, owe their genesis, if not wholly then partially, to the images shown in the Indian dance videos.
The question is, why do we have access to so much explicit material available on casual surfing of the TV channel button? Please understand that, this is not the case even in western
societies, the same societies we deem to be the very harbinger of casual social values. Western TV programmes, usually are a mix of comedies, social dramas movies. Each programme has ratings that indicate the nature of the programme and content. But there is no need to talk about the west here. What about the South East Asian countries like Singapore, Hong Kong or Malaysia and Indonesia? If you are passing through one of these economically developed countries, and decide to surf the channel of the hotel TV chances are that the image that may appear is a detective movie or a comedy serial. This scribe saw the image of the eccentric detective "Monk" in a recent visit to Hong Kong. None of the channels carried such wanton movements as you are likely to see daily in the dance videos sitting in Dhaka since these channels are not shown and would not be permitted.
People have the right to choose what they want to watch. However, there are some decisions that have to be taken judi-
ciously. Social leaders are there to decide on many matters that depend on only their discretion and understanding, not the choice of the common person. That is just the nature of leadership and decision making.
In Singapore, Star TV programmes was introduced with a careful eye on the effect on society. Explicit scenes, which are hardly as frequent as dance videos, were cut for some time. The broader question is to be discussed and decided upon by the broader society. The personal opinion of this scribe should be very clear by now, a way has to be found to ensure that the constant obscenity, now on show in the TV channels, have to be lessened. Satellite TV has so many good channels for viewing. Even some of the Hindi channels are very good, with dramas and talk shows, great golden oldie Hindi movies and clippings of current releases. Therefore, the issue is not to abrogate the Hindi channels, the issue is to stop the constancy of obscenity, in only some of the TV channels.