Mumbai, Nov 7 (TIWN) National Award-winning actress Tannishtha Chatterjee, who is playing a pivotal role in the upcoming film "Jhalki", which addresses the issue of child labour in India, says that though we constantly talk about how children are the future of the nation, the thought does not reflect on childrens policy and in our society.

Asked about how she looked at the contrasting situation, Tannishtha told IANS: "I think it is a dichotomy that, as an individual family, we always prioritise the wellbeing of our children. In a middle-class family, the monthly budget revolves around the needs of children — their food, education, and happiness. On one hand we show We our love and affection towards our children and yet as a society, we face this the problem of child labour. In every development projects, we are only thinking about adults and how a child would benefit from the project."  Citing the example of how not many children''s films are made the actress mentioned: "The approach should be futuristic instead of short-term thinking. Look at our Indian films — we say the family entertainment genre is the most profitable but are we noticing that when we make a film on children, the whole family comes and watch it! A child will not come and watch the film in the theatre alone right?"  "Neither have we created fictional characters in cinema like the western world, nor did we make films where the child is the protagonist.  Do we really get to know the inner conflict of a child through a film? " wondered Tannishtha who adopted a girl child last month.  Directed by Brahmanand Siingh, "Jhalki" features Boman Irani, Sanjay Suri, Divya Dutta, Govind Namdev and two young actors, Aarti and Goraksha.  Asked about how the film opened the door for her to know the intensity of child labour issue in India, Tannishtha said:  "I got an insight into how hard Kailash Satyarthi has been working on the issue of child labour, and the struggle that he faced throughout, and the life-threatening danger it involves. The nexus is so huge that breaking the chain of the racket is very tough." 

The actress also emphasised on the responsibility of the government to put a much bigger budget on the education, and to make their education mandatory. She said, that the programs should be well designed by involving parents to expose and make them aware of the importance of education, since they are sending their children to work instead of school.