Avoid Swiggy, Zomato, let children taste delicious food made by mothers: Kerala High Court

The Kerala High Court advised parents to avoid Swiggy and Zomato (Representational image)

The Kerala High Court emphasised on the importance of home-cooked meals for children while hearing a case related to pornography. According to Live Law, Justice PV Kunhikrishnan advised parents to stop ordering from Swiggy and Zomato to “let children taste the delicious food made by their mother.”

The Kerala High Court was hearing a case against a man who was arrested from the roadside for watching pornography on his mobile phone. The court offered its views on modern parenting while quashing criminal charges against the man, ruling that watching pornography in private, without sharing or exhibiting it to others, will not be considered an offense under Section 292 of the India Penal Code, India Today reported.

Justice PV Kunhikrishnan said that parents today hand their mobile phones to children so they can “complete their daily routine works in their house.” He advised parents to instead send their children to play outside and welcome them back home with the “mesmerising smell of mother’s food.”

“Let the children play cricket or football or other games they like during their leisure time. That is necessary for a healthy young generation who are to become the beacons of hope of our nation in the future. Instead of purchasing food from restaurants through ‘Swiggy’ and ‘Zomato’, let the children taste the delicious food made by their mother and let the children play at play grounds at that time and come back home to the mesmerizing smell of mother’s food. I leave it there to the wisdom of the parents of minor children of this society,” the court said.

The court further cautioned against the drawbacks of giving children unchecked access to technology at the cost of traditional entertainment avenues. “"Innocent parents will give mobile phones to their minor children to make them happy. Instead of delicious food made by the mother and a cake cutting ceremony on birthdays of children, parents are giving mobile phones with internet access to their minor children as a gift on such occasions to make to make them happy. The parents should be aware of the danger behind it. Let the children watch informative news and videos from the mobile phones of their parents in their presence,” the judge said.

The advice comes weeks after the Supreme Court released a handbook on identifying and combating gender stereotypes in judicial discourses and decision making.

In August, the Supreme Court released a handbook, meant for judges, to identify language and stereotypes that place women at disadvantage or show them in a regressive light. “Even when women pursue professional careers, the social behaviour and characteristics expected of them in the private sphere (e.g., performing domestic tasks such as cooking or cleaning) continues to be expected of them,” the handbook notes in its section on ‘Stereotypes based on gender roles.’