Do we really teach young Indian boys that they are vulnerable? Pehredaar Piya Ki is making the matters shoddier by normalizing voracious relationships.
Pehredaar Piya Ki, a show presently aired on Sony TV, is about a 9-year-old kid who is married to a 22-year-old girl. The custom of young girls being married off to comparatively older men is not unheard of, and today also it is the custom in certain cultures. This show, though, brings a new bend to unsuitable relationships as it casts a young boy ‘romancing’ an older woman — just like a classic romeo, then getting married to her, and having a first night and a honeymoon with her. The show is telecasted at the primary time on a general entertainment channel which is usually considered for family viewing. Pehredaar Piya Ki endorses and normalizes the inherently repugnant.
According to the Indian law, a wedding ceremony where either the woman is under 18 years of age or the man is under 21 is taken as a child marriage.
These marriages are considered illegal since 1929. The law also guarantees that boys and girls strained into child marriages as minors have the choice of nullifying their marriage up to 2 years after reaching the adulthood, and in some situations, marriages of minors can be null and void before they reach adulthood.
Regardless of its doubtful legal status, public response to a show portraying child marriage has not completely seen disapproval among the public. “Bache ko action mil raha hai tou teri kyu jal rahi hai,” is one amongst many comments on an article about the serial, enlightening how society sees relationships that relates a younger boy to an older woman.
Youthful, teenage boys are on the verge of emotional and psychological prime of life. Though they might look physically grown up, emotionally they are still rather susceptible. Curious, hormone-driven, and often fighting with parents who they feel do not value them, are ripe for the selection.
Notwithstanding all this there is a mysterious omerta just about the sexual abuse of boys which gets us back to why we should have a trouble with Pehredaar Piya Ki. The show normalizes a marriage between a child and an adult girl. Also, with it the unspoken hypothesis of the sexual relationship that will exist between them.
By showing this on the television channel that is viewed by families across the globe, we sprint the risk of normalizing what is innately unusual in its basic ground. Rather than cautioning them against probable abusers, we are just telling our boys that it is acceptable to be drained into grasping relationships, be it sexual or emotional.
