Kolkata, July 01: With reality shows involving children coming under the scanner after a schoolgirl`s ordeal, the Centre on Tuesday said it plans to come out with regulations that will also include a code of conduct for judges.

"The reality shows are operating in an unregulated market. We want to bring in regulations so that the children get better conditions for working," Union Women and Child Development minister Renuka Chowdhury told newsmen days after allegations were levelled by a family of Class Eleven girl here that she became partially paralysed due to depression on being "humiliated" by judges at one such show.

Stating that that the language used by the judges often hurt child participants at reality shows, Chowdhury said the regulations being planned would also include a code of conduct for the judges.

While the government would do all it could to protect the children`s rights from being violated, parents should also check out the shows before sending their wards, she said.

Under the Juvenile Justice Act, the government had initiated certain steps in protecting child rights, including prevention of the media for projecting children in an inappropriate manner, she said.

Raising questions over reality shows, the family of 16-year-old Shinjini Sengupta had alleged last week that she had become partially paralysed after being publicly humiliated in a reality show. The girl is undergoing treatment at NIMHANS, a premier neurosciences hospital in Bangalore.

Ringoo, one of the judges in the reality show in which Shinjini was eliminated, meanwhile got into a spat in Bangalore with the relatives of the girl after he said there was no controversy.

Asked whether the judges had a right to criticise kids, Ringoo said "In a reality show, we have to advice, assess and scrutinise performance."

Bureau Report