After Sunny Leone's ad controversy, now Govt may restrict 'timing' of condom advertisements

New Delhi, Oct 3: One may not be able to see condom advertisement during day time soon. Reportedly, Government is planning to confine such television ads to late-night hours only.

According to a Telegraph report, Centre recently received lots of complaints from viewers and politicians to limit the timing of these ads. Government was told about how these condom ads were spoiling small kids. Center was requested to take some steps in this regard.

Understanding the wrong impact of the advertisement, the Information and Brodcasting ministry is now considering a proposal to limit the timing of such ads. Soon, an inter-ministerial committee will debate the issue and plan how to move forward over the same.

What is the plan?

When asked about the issue, an official in the broadcasting division was quoted as saying, "There is currently no restriction on condom advertisements. They can be shown at any time of the day and on any kind of channel, but this might change in the future as we're taking a fresh look".

Peeved with outrageous content of the ads on the TV channels, a lawyer had written a letter to Ministry. "While about twenty five years ago - when the first such ads started getting broadcast on TV - condoms were depicted as a contraceptive method and a way of family planning, present-day ads portray them as pleasure-enhancers and therefore have given rise to free sex", Nagpur based lawyer wrote.

Content of Television advertisement is broadly categorized into two groups - general (G) and restricted (R). 'General' means people of all class and age group can see the content on the TV set. But Restricted category doesn't allow young viewers to see the content. Moreover content of the restricted category can only be aired between 11pm and 5am.

On how govt is planning to move ahead to limit the timing of such ads, a ministry official said, "If the committee decides to restrict the ads, letters will be sent to all TV channels registered with us to stick to the new norm and show those ads only during adult hours".

Controversy over the ads

Recently, CPI leader Anjan has demanded a ban on the condom ad featuring Sunny Leone, contending that the "disgusting and dirty" ad could lead to increase in rape incidents. Former chairperson of Delhi Commission for Women Barkha Shukla Singh also condemned the advertisement of condom featuring Leone. She said that it serves "immorality and bad practices" to the people and urged government to immediately withdraw the commercial from TV.

OneIndia News