Mumbai: A Delhi-based group of child rights activists, writers and legal experts have written to Bollywood actor Aishwarya Rai Bachchan expressing their dismay at her being featured in a jewellery advertisement that they say is not only racist but goes against child rights.

The group has appealed to the former Miss World and now a popular star with a large fan following to “use your image in a manner that promotes progressive thought and action, and would not knowingly promote regressive images.”

They have drawn the actor’s attention to her appearance in a full-page advertisement for a large jewellery group in The Hindu (Delhi edition) on April 17, 2015 where she is featured as “representing aristocracy from a bygone era — bejewelled, poised and relaxing while an obviously undersize slave-child, very dark and emaciated, struggles to hold an oversize umbrella over your head.”

Conveying their shock at the concept of this advertisement, they wrote: “We, therefore, urge you to do the right thing — cease to associate yourself with this offensive image by ensuring that further use of this advertisement is stopped.”

A similar letter has also been sent to the jewellery group.

While the advertisement raises a serious issue, Aishwarya’s publicist, Archana Sadanand, Imagesmiths, has responded to the open letter with a statement by thanking the letter writers for “drawing our attention to the observation of the perception of the advertisement.”

She goes on to say that “the final layout of the ad is entirely the prerogative of the creative team for a brand. However, shall forward your article as a viewpoint that can be taken into consideration by the creative team of professionals working on the brand visual communication.”

The open letter was sent by Farah Naqvi, writer and feminist activist, Nisha Agrawal, CEO, Oxfam India, Enakshi Ganguly & Bharati Ali, co-directors, HAQ, Centre for Child Rights, Madhu Mehra, executive director, Partners for Law in Development, Shantha Sinha, former chairperson, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, Harsh Mander, Centre for Equity Studies, and Mridula Bajaj, executive director, Mobile Creches.

They say that while Aishwarya, a national brand ambassador for the jewellery group, may have unthinkingly associated with the regressive portrayal of a child to sell a product, advertisers who often use fantasy images to sell products “must surely desist from using images that condone, legitimise, normalise or build desirable fantasy around slavery or servitude of any kind, including child slavery or child servitude.

“Further, the extremely fair colour of your skin (as projected in the advertisement) contrasted with the black skin of the slave-boy is obviously a deliberate ‘creative’ juxtaposition by the advertising agency, and insidiously racist. The genealogy of this image can be traced back to 17th and 18th century colonial European portraits of white artistocracy, depicting women being waited upon by their black ‘servants’,” the letter reads.

To accentuate their point, images of paintings of European women in finery but with a dark child in attendance have also been sent with the letter.

The crux of the matter that the letter focuses is on bringing about a social change — fighting racism that is a global reality, putting an end to child labour that is so rampant in India and ensuring that Right to Education is implemented—making sure children up to the age of 14 are in school and learning.

“Given that we proclaim commitment to each of these goals, we urge you to look beyond the product itself and examine the fantasy/desire that this particular advertisement seeks to subliminally create,” says the letter to the actor.

The letter also draws attention to a similar image (with a more contemporary feel) that was created by Pakistani designer Aamna Aqeel in May 2013 in her “Be My Slave” fashion shoot, depicting white models in high-end clothes being served by a dark child slave.

“These pictures, which appeared in DIVA, a Pakistani fashion and lifestyle magazine, were called tasteless and racist. One photo from that shoot is a structural mirror of the Kalyan Jewellers advertisement, and serves to illustrate how frighteningly enduring this slave fantasy is.”