In
a commercial (video below) to sell Dixcy Scott inner wear for
men, Salman Khan deliberately loses to a father of child with disability (shown
in crutch) to make him win the cash prize. By losing deliberately for charity or to show
magnanimity only because the child has disability sends wrong signals. It is more ‘a sell than a sale’ by
showing pity on the people with disabilities they want to encourage the
attitude of patronizing. If the child shown was a non-disabled child, then
would the wearer of vest be not as macho as he is now? Or if the child shown
was having invisible disability (hearing impairment), would the wearer of vest
still lose the fight? Why do media want to portray that the people with
disabilities are only ‘the takers’? Or does it
give the society an opportunity to "demonstrate to themselves that they
still belong to a moral community?’’
It
is completely outrageous to see deliberate portrayal of helplessness just to
sell a product. Disability is considered a problem that needs corrections and
through the charity. And unfortunately because of this age long labelling and
branding of people with disabilities, they themselves have accepted this as an
order of the day. Such depictions of disability
that originate in the arts, literature, film, television, and other mass media
fiction works, are frequently normalized through repetition to the general
audience. The cute, loveable child in
need of a cure and care sends the message that if benevolent others contribute money;
we can make disability go away.
These
instances don’t only create attitudinal barriers but also promote
internalization of disability in the people themselves disabling them all the
more.
Unfortunately
disability still remains an issue of charity not only in our society but also
in the psyche of the
common man and the media world tends to promote this stereotype just for the
sake of profits.
This
psyche needs to be changed because thought processes do tend to become
hereditary. We need to unlearn certain things and certain behaviours which we
otherwise tend to ignore in the name of trends, patterns, etc. What we need is
a paradigm shift. Otherwise we would never be able to come out the medical or
charity model of disability and shift towards right based issues. To
do businesses and ‘use’ disability as an object of pity to assuage conscience and
giving the non disabled an opportunity to feel altruistic, I think, is
absolutely inhuman.
As
Salman Khan writes on the Dixcy Scott’s website ‘Difference starts within’, we
must understand that we all are different and any one of us can have impairment
any time in our life. It’s perfectly normal to be different, to have
impairment. The indifferent attitudes of society make us disabled. It is like
being inhuman. We strongly condemn the depiction of such things and would
request the authorities to ban this commercial from being aired at the
earliest.
Complaint has been sent to Indian Broadcasting
Foundation and Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, India.
Abha Khetarpal (President, Cross the Hurdles), Counsellor with a disability
Dr Satendra Singh, Doctor with disability