Grihalakshmi is Malayalam fortnightly magazine and not many people outside Kerala know about that magazine until couple of days back. But with one cover page photo that attracted applause and controversy at the same time, now entire country knows about that magazine as well as the model Gilu Joseph who featured in that photo. For the starters, Malayalam magazine Grihalakshmi’s latest cover page features model Gilu Joseph breastfeeding a baby with caption saying, “Mothers to Kerala: Don’t Stare At Us. We Need To Breastfeed.” This photo has created quite a buzz but at the same time attracted controversy. Now the magazine is slapped with complaints and cases.
The case has been filed at the Kollam CJM court by advocate Vinod Mathew against the publishers and the model Gilu Joseph, under sections 3 and 4 of the Indecent Representation of Women Act, 1986. The main complaint was the cover photo used an advertisement model who is unmarried instead of a real mother. Another advocate lodged a complaint with the State Child Rights Commission against Gilu, the publishers of Grihalakshmi and the parents of the baby who was featured saying, “The baby’s health and rights have been exploited as new born child was used for commercial purposes. Also tricking the baby into thinking that the model is its mother and that it will get milk is violation of child rights”. Many netizens also opined, if the magazine is serious about the issue they should have used real mother and baby instead of going for a commercialized approach.
However, Moncy Joseph, the editor-in-chief of Grihalakshmi, responded “We were planning to use a real mother for the cover. However, despite repeated attempts, we were unable to get a real mother to feature on the cover.” He also remarked, the problem does not lie with the photograph, it is purely in the mindset of the people,” he said.
Gilu Joseph is a Malayali Poet, works as an air hostess and also acted in Malayalam movies.
