The Child and Women Welfare department of Rajasthan is at the centre of controversy for using the face of an abducted Hindu Pakistani girl for its anti-child marriage campaign.
A few days back, the department had inserted advertisements in newspapers and also put up hoardings at prominent places across the State urging the people not to wed their daughters till they attain the age of 18 years.
In this advertisement the photo of a girl was used, who happened to be one of the two sisters of a Hindu family in Pakistan. The two sisters, some months back, were abducted and forcibly married to Muslim boys. They were also converted to Islam.
The Sujas, a monthly magazine, published by the Directorate of Public Relations, also used the same picture along with an article on child marriage in its May issue.
Some experts raised eyebrows over using the picture of the girl, who belongs to Pakistan and the matter was brought to the knowledge at the higher level of the Government.
According to Rekha Gupta, director of the department, they are verifying the correct position before taking up the matter with the ad company, which was assigned the campaign.
last year, a similar controversy had erupted when in an advertisement campaign on computer education for minorities, the Director of Public Relations used the picture of two Muslim girls from UP. In fact, it was almost a copy of the advertisement launched by the then BSP Government in UP.
later the department withdrew the advertisement and action was initiated against the ad agency for copying the UP advertisement on the same issue.
According to official sources, whenever any agency was assigned any campaign, they were asked to use only original material and not to copy from other sources. But ad experts say that the pictures in the advertisements are symbolic and should not necessarily belong tothe State.