Social media campaign by GCC featuring a girl child adorned with garbage draws flak

A social media campaign by GCC, pertaining to solid waste, has come under criticism as the civic body had portrayed a girl child in an insensitive way.

After the civic body featured a girl child with garbage on the head alongside actor Yogi Babu on social media, many residents lodged a complaint on the system to redress grievances, demanding that the civic body delete such posts, and scrap the campaign.

Madipakkam resident and Madras High Court Advocate G.M.Shankar filed a complaint online on Thursday against what he claimed was an insensitive portrayal of a girl child. He shared the information on social media alleging that it was an offence against women and children.

“I filed a complaint on Thursday with the number 2025 – 614GHE after I saw a girl child portrayed with garbage on the head with the words Ithu Kuppai Matter Illa. However, on Friday, the civic body changed it and carried a similar template with actor Yogi Babu standing while the girl child crowned herself with garbage. I have asked GCC to delete all such templates for civic campaigns from X and Facebook. Even if the girl child is AI generated, it will offend residents.”

Advocate Sudha Ramalingam said it seems to be an insensitive way of depicting the girl child, a sort of stereotyping of the role of women.  “The man stands without the burden of the garbage while the girl child is burdened with the garbage. This depicts our deep-rooted stereotyped ideas of females being responsible for cleaning. Gender neutral advertisements and not gender specific advertisements should be done,” she said.

Geetha Ganesh, secretary of AGS Colony RWA, Velachery West, said: “It’s unfair representation. It could have been shown as, in her mind within the cloud as if she is thinking.” Jamalia resident Ahmed Sirajuddin asked: “What do they mean by dumping garbage on a child’s head ? Whatever message GCC wants to communicate to the citizens, this is not the way to communicate.”

N.Mathavan, former GCC engineer, said it was quite wrong. T. Nagar resident V. S. Jayaraman said the campaign was insensitive. “Does any person dump garbage on anybody’s head, more so on any child. This is an insult to the children,” he said.

MDMK councillor S.Jeevan said: “Even though we cannot accept such a campaign depicting a girl child with garbage on the head, the picture also evokes a sense of concern about the probable impact of the waste to energy plant on the younger generation.”

Chennai Corporation officials said the civic body will launch a campaign to sensitise all the people about various civic issues without hurting the sentiments of residents.