Ridiculous

I am so surprized to see the treatment and discrimination of children with special needs.

In India nobody bothers about such things. Living in US has made me realize how lax we Indians are about the safety and neglect of our kids there.
Here in the US kids come first. Govt spends millions of dollars for special programs for teaching and training special needs children like Antara. Child abuse and neglect are crimes and punishable offences.
NO KID BELOW THE AGE OF 11 is supposed to be left alone and unsupervised at home. Its ILLEGAL!
If parents are found guilty of child abuse or neglect the kids are taken away from them and placed in child care.

In India the picture is completely different even now. When my sister sent her 9 yr old daughter to the stores alone, I had protested, why are u letting her go alone? Isnt it dangerous? My sister started laughing, said shes only going to the saamnewala grocery store, the guy knows us and her, what danger can there be?
Living here for so long has changed my attitude. The problem is there are so many crimes against children here, we cant ignore such things and have to be careful at all times. But in India ppl take these things more lightly and ignore their own statistics of crimes against youngsters.

Originally posted by: aarjay

I am so surprized to see the treatment and discrimination of children with special needs.

5 year old Abhishek is left alone in the house

The school pricipal and teachers treat Antara so bad and the parents just listen and beg to let her stay in school.

Finally Aditya agrees to leave autistic Antara with Billo alone in the house.

Do'nt the producers realize that this show is viewed by an International audience, where childrens safety is foremost.

Please post your replies

Whats wrong sending kids to the local stores during daytime? its not like someone would kidnap you or anything as such, especially in India...India is alot safter country to stay than US...US is well known for its crimes rate etc..so the laws are made accordingly to the country in which one resides in....Also Antara was left in the house with Billo and Billo is old enough and mature enough to be left alone and responsible enough to look after Antara. I stay in UK, but ive been left alone when i was only 7/8 for a few hours when my parents had to go somewhere in emergency or other such cases. I mean as long as you provide the child with the necessary food, toys to play with or vidoes to watch then a few hours just passes by.

Xoxo

I think that Americans are sometimes overly paranoid about parenting. It can get very tiresome. We follow the laws because, well, that is what we do, but I will admit that we do so mostly so as not to draw unwanted scrutiny. I am talking of things like not allowing our daughter to play unsupervised in our own backyard. Back home, this would be a normal thing, but here, I must be outside with her the whole time.

The level of policing by the community can be very suffocating. I wonder if people here in the US have become like this because there is very little extended family setup, so people are just more fearful.

On one level, we do have to be careful about safety. On another level, this is why kids turn out so clingy, dependant, and unable to occupy themselves.

Mahika.

Originally posted by: MahikaL

I think that Americans are sometimes overly paranoid about parenting. It can get very tiresome. We follow the laws because, well, that is what we do, but I will admit that we do so mostly so as not to draw unwanted scrutiny. I am talking of things like not allowing our daughter to play unsupervised in our own backyard. Back home, this would be a normal thing, but here, I must be outside with her the whole time. <br><br>The level of policing by the community can be very suffocating. I wonder if people here in the US have become like this because there is very little extended family setup, so people are just more fearful. <br><br>On one level, we do have to be careful about safety. On another level, this is why kids turn out so clingy, dependant, and unable to occupy themselves.<br><br>Mahika.<br>

I beg to differ! Americans are paranoid because they have reason to be so! There are so many perverts, child-molesters and psychopaths around that people cannot take a risk. Whenever a sex offender moves into any neighbourhood, that school district lets parents know because those sickos pose a threat to the kids. So many times, young schoolgirls on their way home from school have been followed by cars, attempted kidnappings have taken place. So many children are missing in so many states, most of them have been kidnapped and killed or sold!
Better be safe than sorry!

Backyards or front yards, kids have been kidnapped from their own homes, from their own bedrooms! Example, 12 year old girl Elizabeth Smart in Utah was kidnapped from her own bedroom. What about Polly Klaas, who was kidnapped from her mother's home and killed?

And I totally dont agree that American kids are clingy and dependant! In fact they grow up to be quite self reliant and start working from a very young age. Most of them pay for their college by taking jobs from high school years. On the other hand, Indian kids are financed almost totally by doting parents. American kids are quite tough when they grow up. Only they need to be protected during the growing years because thats when kids are the most vulnerable and unsafe.

I didnt allow my daughter to play outside by herself or walk back from school all alone but from her late teens, she went everywhere and did everything by herself, she started working from the age of 16-17. Now she lives in Manhattan, I still worry about her but now I think she can take care of herself becuz now she is not at that vulnerable stage anymore.

Even in India, girls face a lot of eve-teasing and vulgarity from the age of 12 onwards. At first they dont know how to deal with that but gradually learn. India is by no means a safe haven for growing up girls! Everywhere, on public buses, crowded streets, girls are groped and touched inappropriately. I dont know why people are in denial of these facts! 😕

Pallavi, You are certainly entitled to that viewpoint. 😊 The fact that there are dangers in India and the US does not change the fact that people go overboard in their fears, and that's just my personal opinion.

I don't know your daughter, but I'm sure she is a delightful person who is managing her life very well.

Whatever my fears, my daughter will have to learn the same. I am basing my assessment of the clinginess of kids on what I see around me. Of course I am not lax about my kids' safety, but one can be safe without the constant panic and fearmongering too. My mom taught us to be careful without obviously hyperventilating in our presence😆, as I'm sure you taught your daughter also. I do not think we do the kids any favours by showing them the deepest, darkest depths of our morbid thoughts.

Mahika.

I agree with Mahika to an extent that Americans can be overly paranoid, but I also think there is such a thing as being overly lax as well. With all due respect, I have noticed that there are certain issues that India (as a nation, not as a people) prefers to sweep under the rug, hoping they will just go away.

Child trafficking is a HUGE problem in India. Don't fool yourself into thinking it's some safe idyllic place. Any developing nation is rife with crime and corruption. Happily, India is making steady and quick progress, but there is still a lot of work to be done, especially as you move out of the cities. Child labor and prostitution are big issues. Some children are sold into it, while others are simply swept away. Many such crimes go unreported, or are never followed up. But I'll tell you one thing: It only takes a blink of an eye for a child to be kidnapped, and once it happens, there is virtually no hope of ever seeing that child again in a country as vast and populous as India.

I read a very sad article in the news about an Indian mother who sent her son off to do something (I can't remember what, but it was very routine). He never returned. She went to the police and they did not take her claim seriously, stating that they get several reports of missing children and can't actively investigate every single one. Remember that not all Indians live in cities and are educated and influential. I have to say that in the US, the laws we have in place work to tackle the problem head-on, and all cases are treated with the same urgency.

Most parents whose kids go missing say the same thing: It was just for a few moments. How would we know this would happen? Our neighborhood/grocery store/park is a safe place. Well, it's always a safe place until something happens, and all of us are equally vulnerable. The risk of leaving a kid unattended is huge compared to the reward. When I was a kid, I'd play in the back yard with my brother while my mom sat in the kitchen. We were still visible to her. It wasn't a big deal or a huge inconvenience for her to stay there, nor did it impede our childhood in any way. Personally, with something as precious as kids, I'd rather err on the side of caution.

That said, I do think there is such a thing as being overly paranoid, but for me that has more to do with things like illness and physical injuries. Getting sick and getting hurt are a part of childhood! I don't get the need to disinfect every surface of your house because there are children in it. The children themselves are probably germier and grubbier than any household surface 😆

I live in US and we have two little boys. We have to follow the rules of having kids in car/booster seats, can't have them sit in the front in the car with air bags on, can't let them go to play in houses where we don't know the parents and the family well enough, can't have them ride the bike without helmets and knee caps, swimming is learnt with an instructor, elementary kids are kept seperately from middle school and high school. The more I come to know of rules, the more we feel secure and even though it is hard sometimes, we have to follow them knowing it is for the kids safety. When I say all this I don't mean that things don't go wrong here, but the probability and statistics is decreased to a great extent for any of these accidents to happen.