MAM
Mudra rolls out 2nd phase of campaign for domestic child workers
MUMBAI: Domestic child labour has been prevalent in India and in order to increase awareness around the cruelties that are meted out to these kids, Mudra has rolled out the second phase of a campaign around the same. The campaign is for an NGO — The National Domestic Workers’ Movement, which has been around for two decades.
The NGO’s vision is to create a society where domestic workers are treated as persons with dignity and justice and also envision a society where child domestic work is abolished and all children enjoy the right to education and full childhood.
Of the more than 200 million children working in the world, it is impossible to know how many are exploited in domestic service. The International Labour Organization (ILO), however, estimates that more girl-children under 16 are in domestic service than in any other category of work.
Hence, The National Domestic Workers’ Movement has unleashed this new campaign at the Mumbai level to create awareness among people. As part of the awareness drive, two separate sets of activities will be rolled out in the print and outdoor medium.
The purpose of the media campaign is to generate awareness on vulnerability of children in domestic work. The campaign concentrates on children in domestic work.
Domestic workers, especially children, are paid well below minimum wage for unskilled and semi-skilled workers and they are discriminated against. Labour laws do not cover domestic workers and children in domestic work. Because of this, employers can hire, fire, and mistreat domestic workers at their will. Kids are more at risk as they are more vulnerable and exposed to physical and sexual abuse, and are more unaware of their rights than adults are.
Mumbai alone has an estimated 60,000 children between 5 – 14 years in domestic work and 80,000 between 14 – 18 years according to the National Sample Survey.
The broad objectives of the campaign is to:
Raise awareness about the vulnerability of children in domestic work
Create a link between development and education of all children
Make employers realise that the development of the country is linked to their own welfare, therefore send all children to school
To sensitise people towards the child’s right to education
To dissolve the societal myth that child domestic work is a solution to poverty
To remind people that children are human beings
Speaking to Indiantelevision.com, Mudra associate creative director Sukumar Menon says, “Last month, we had rolled out a campaign for child domestic workers. It was a small budget campaign, which was rolled out in prime outdoor locations in Mumbai and in a couple of select magazines like Savvy and Showtime. The aim of the campaign was to bring about the point that domestic work isn’t child’s play. The second phase of the campaign that we have now rolled out takes that message further.”
The second campaign focuses on the problem area of child trafficking. “Since this does not come under any specific labour act, it is an area where not much can be done except generate awareness among people through the campaign to treat child domestic labour properly. We laid an emphasis on the fact that the message in campaign flowed seamlessly from the previous one,” said Menon.
The National Domestic Workers’ Movement has not only rolled out this new campaign but is also looking at parallel activities like school audio-visual programmes and other literacy programmes to generate awareness among people. The aim is also to make an appeal to the government to club this under the law. “Mass media is just one aspect of the entire campaign against the ill-treatment and trafficking of domestic child workers. Unlike any other social cause, this issue has never been spoken about,” informs Menon.
While the previous campaign had a advertising budget of Rs 350,000 – Rs 400,000, this time round, the budget has been tripled and hence there will be more activity around the issue.
While the first campaign broke in July, the second was rolled out in September and will run through November. The new ads, which tackles the issue of trafficking, shows a child in a toy box placed besides the Barbies and the Kens of the world in a retail outlet. Of course the price tag is attached with special offers to bring out the gravity of the situation.
Menon informs that the next campaign of the NGO would tackle another issue like education or vocational training of the domestic child labour. “The aim is to bring these issues to light and make the issue a talking point. All ads that we roll out will continue to have the same look and feel. We want to sensitise and make the audience feel socially responsible. We also want to raise awareness of a civil society where every child goes to school,” says Menon.
Digital
Content India 2026 opens with a copro pitch, a spice evangelist and a £10,000 prize for Indian storytelling
Dish TV and C21Media’s three-day summit puts seven ambitious projects before an international jury, and two walk away with serious development money
MUMBAI: India’s content industry gathered in Mumbai this March for Content India 2026, a three-day summit organised by Dish TV in partnership with C21Media, and it wasted no time making a statement. The event opened with a Copro Pitch that put seven scripted and unscripted television concepts before an international panel of judges, and by the end of it, two projects had walked away with £10,000 each in marketing prize money from C21Media to support development and international promotion.
The jury, comprising Frank Spotnitz, Fiona Campbell, Rashmi Bajpai, Bal Samra and Rachel Glaister, evaluated a shortlist that ranged from a dark Mumbai comedy-drama about mental health (Dirty Minds, created by Sundar Aaron) to a Delhi coming-of-age mystery (Djinn Patrol, by Neha Sharma and Kilian Irwin), a techno-thriller about a teenage gaming prodigy (Kanpur X Satori, by Suchita Bhatia), an investigative crime drama blending mythology and modern thriller (The Age of Kali, by Shivani Bhatija), a documentary on India’s spice heritage (The Masala Quest, hosted by Sarina Kamini), a documentary on competitive gaming (Respawn: India’s Esports Revolution, by George Mangala Thomas and Sangram Mawari), and a reality-horror competition merging gaming and immersive fear (Scary Goose, by Samar Iqbal).
The session was hosted by Mayank Shekhar.
The two winners were Djinn Patrol, backed by Miura Kite, formerly of Participant Media and known for Chinatown and Keep Sweet: Pray & Obey, with Jaya Entertainment, producers of Real Kashmir Football Club, also attached; and The Masala Quest, created and hosted by Sarina Kamini, an Indian-Australian cook, author and self-described “spice evangelist.”
The summit also unveiled the Content India Trends Report, whose findings made for bracing reading. Daoud Jackson, senior analyst at OMDIA, set the tone: “By 2030, online video in India will nearly double the revenue of traditional TV, becoming the main driver of growth.” He noted that in 2025, India produced a quarter of all YouTube videos globally, overtaking the United States, while Indians collectively spend 117 years daily on YouTube and 72 years on Instagram. Traditional subscription TV is declining as free TV and connected TV gain ground, forcing broadcasters to innovate. “AI-generated content is just 2 per cent of engagement,” Jackson added, “highlighting the dominance of high-quality human content. The key for Indian media companies is scaling while monetising effectively from day one.”
Hannah Walsh, principal analyst at Ampere Analysis, added hard numbers to the picture. India produced over 24,000 titles in January 2026 alone, with 19,000 available internationally. The country now accounts for 12 per cent of Asia-Pacific content spend, up from 8 per cent in 2021, outpacing both Japan and China. Key exporters include JioStar, Zee Entertainment, Sony India, Amazon and Netflix, delivering over 7,500 Indian-produced titles abroad each year. The top importing markets are Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, the United States and the Philippines. Scripted content dominates globally at 88 per cent, with crime dramas and children’s and family titles performing particularly strongly.
Manoj Dobhal, chief executive and executive director of Dish TV India, framed the summit’s ambition squarely. “Stories don’t need translation. They need a platform, discovery, and reach, local or global,” he said. “India produces more movies than any country, our streaming platforms compete globally, and our tech and creators win international awards. Yet fragmentation slows growth. Producers, platforms, and tech move in different lanes. We need shared spaces, collaboration, and an ecosystem where ideas, technology, and people meet. That is why we built Content India.”
The data, the pitches and the prize money all pointed to the same conclusion: India is not waiting for the world to discover its stories. It is building the infrastructure to sell them.
