Shimoga: Curiosity Leads 10-year-old Girl to Imitate Suicide Scene from TV Serial
Daijiworld Media Network – Shimoga (SP)
Shimoga, Jan 30: The adverse influence of television on children is an issue that has always been in debate. Innumerable cases of children imitating their reel-life heroes have cropped up time and again, and despite cautionary messages on screen and censorship, the idiot box continues to lure children. Television has often been blamed for leading children to undesirable actions, and the incident in Shimoga is a stark eye-opener.
In a disturbing turn of events, a ten-year-old girl in this district tried to imitate a suicide scene from Kannada television series, ‘Chakravaka’, and battled for her life at a hospital for a few days, before being declared out of danger. The girl, who was saved with the efforts of the doctors attending her, continues to be in the intensive care unit of a private hospital in the town.
Her poor family, of which the girl’s mother is the only bread winner, is now struggling to meet the medical expenses of the girl.
Prema, daughter of Jayanti from Ripponpet in Hosanagar taluk in the district, is studying in the fourth standard of the local government higher primary school. Apparently, she was fascinated by the suicide scene in the serial and out of curiousity, tried to enact it on her own.
It is learnt that the family had watched an episode of the series, ‘Chakravaka’, late evening on last Tuesday, in which a character, ‘Shravanti’ was seen committing suicide by tying the veil of her churidar around her neck. Prema had repeatedly questioned her mother as to what would happen if this action was replicated by people. The mother had told her that the person would die, and had explained that the character in the series was just acting the scene out, and that the actress had not actually died.
But despite the explanation, the girl, immediately after returning from school on Wednesday evening, decided to imitate the act, and used her veil for the same. Luckily, she was saved on time.