When I first saw Guru Randhawa’s new video “Azul”, I felt deeply unsettled. Not because of the melody; you can forget that. But because in the middle of it all, I kept seeing my younger sister’s school uniform hanging neatly in her closet and I couldn’t shake the thought: Is this how pop culture is teaching an entire generation to see schoolgirls? “Azul” begins with Randhawa entering an all-girls school with underage students in their school uniforms. Within seconds he is staring at the girls in school uniforms. Then an actress playing a schoolgirl walks in and stares at her with a lingering look that would give any parent goosebumps. The video doesn’t try to hide what’s happening – we watch him stare at her as the camera captures his obvious sexual interest in a character who was supposed to be underage. She begins dancing in her uniform and is portrayed in a highly sexualized manner that creates harmful ideas about schoolgirls among a predominantly male audience, particularly young boys. Then comes the transformation. Eventually, her school uniform disappears and is replaced with casual wear as she becomes the main protagonist of the video, now joined by other artists dancing alongside her.
Even more disturbing are the texts in which these young women in school uniforms are systematically compared to premium alcohol brands and objectified as consumer goods. Randhawa spends his entire video equating them with Hennessy, Teremana Tequila and rare vintage bottles. He presents himself as a bespectacled adult authority, behind the camera, evaluating and coveting these bottles.
Even more disturbing are the texts in which these young women in school uniforms are systematically compared to premium alcohol brands and objectified as consumer goods.
He is 34 years old. The girls are portrayed as high school students. There are no ambiguities here, no artistic interpretation to debate. It is a music video that openly sexualizes underage schoolgirls and sends harmful messages to society. And somehow this film was produced, distributed and viewed by almost 100 million people without anyone in the production chain stopping to ask if it had crossed a line.
These 100 million views are not a coincidence. They represent an industry that knows exactly what it’s selling and an audience that buys it.
Children and schoolgirls exposed to violence: numbers don’t lie
Can India really afford this kind of content when our children, minors and school-age girls are already overweight? are exposed to violence and abuse? The statistics alone should scare us in this country. According to the NCRB Report “Crime in India 2022”.India registered 162,449 cases of crimes against children in 2022; That’s almost 450 cases per day and an increase of 8.7% compared to 2021.
Blue video song
Here’s what should alarm us: the sharp rise in sexual violence against children. A FairPlanet analysis shows that sexual violence increased by 96% between 2016 and 2022. In 2022 alone, almost 39,000 children reported experiencing rape or physical assault.
That’s more than 100 children being sexually abused every day, an average of more than four reports per hour. How do we even process such numbers?
This July alone has shown how real this crisis is: a Science Teacher in Tamil Nadu was arrested for allegedly sexually molesting at least 21 girls during school hours. In the same month, a Mumbai English teacher was repeatedly charged rape She drugged her 16-year-old student for an entire year, often giving the child anti-anxiety medication to ease the abuse.
Videos like this confirm the most problematic settings. Boys learn that staring at girls in uniform is attractive and not predatory.
And in the midst of this nightmare, we produce music videos that teach an entire generation that schoolgirls are there to enjoy the gaze of grown men. With documented cases of authority figures preying on students, the last thing we need is a pop culture that normalizes this very dynamic.
Fetishizing Schoolgirls: Normalizing the Abnormal
As millions of young Indians consume videos that normalize the sexualization of schoolgirls, their understanding of acceptable behavior is fundamentally changing. Videos like this confirm the most problematic attitudes already lurking in our society and give them mainstream legitimacy. They make the abnormal seem normal, the criminal acceptable.
The psychological effect is immediate and lasting. Boys learn that staring at girls in uniform is attractive and not predatory. Girls are absorbing the message that being reduced to bottles of alcohol is flattering, not dehumanizing. School uniforms, symbols that should represent education and potential, become fetishized props.
We saw the comments. Teens defend Randhawa, saying critics are ‘overreacting’. Girls joke about wanting to be in the video. This is how it begins.
Girls are absorbing the message that being reduced to bottles of alcohol is flattering, not dehumanizing. School uniforms, symbols that should represent education and potential, become fetishized props. Teens defend Randhawa, saying critics are ‘overreacting’. Girls joke about wanting to be in the video. This is how it begins.
Research confirms what we observe. The 2024 Humanium report on the subject of sexualization in the media warns that such content promotes a culture in which girls and women are valued primarily for their sexual attractiveness. Even more worrying, it normalizes unhealthy power dynamics between older men and younger women and fundamentally influences the way an entire generation understands gender and sexuality.
When laws fall short
The Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses (POCSO) Act, which came into force in 2012, is intended to protect minors from sexual exploitation in all forms. The law criminalizes viewing or collecting pornographic content involving children and makes promoting child sexual abuse a criminal offense. The law even covers situations in which adults are portrayed as children Section 2(1)(yes) Defines child pornography as “any visual depiction of sexually explicit behavior involving a child,” regardless of whether they involve real children.
Everything depends on this word “explicit”. Unless content depicts actual sexual activity, it escapes legal consequences. Music videos like this exploit this loophole perfectly by pushing boundaries while trying to stay under the legal threshold.
Other democracies are beginning to recognize this gap. In Australia it is AANA Code of Ethics and Children’s Advertising Code Impose strict restrictions on the sexualization of minors in media and marketing, and prohibit sexual appeal, sexual images or any suggestion that children are sexual beings, particularly in content aimed at children.
We cannot afford more stereotypical content that perpetuates harmful, predatory ideas. Parliament must immediately consider closing the loopholes in the POCSO Act that enable such forms of suggestive sexualization. The law should address explicit or suggestive depictions of minors in sexual contexts and bring India’s child protection framework into the digital age.
But we need more than just legal reform. Platforms must stop promoting content that objectifies minors simply because it encourages engagement. Advertisers should withdraw funding from any projects that turn underage girls into consumables. Parents need to demand more from an industry that actively teaches their children dangerous lessons about consent and power.
The choice before us is clear: We can continue to reward a system in which platforms profit from every exploitative view while YouTubers monetize legal gray areas at the expense of underage girls, or we can build a country where creative expression thrives without sacrificing the safety and dignity of our girls. Every day we delay action is another day we tell India’s schoolgirls that their dignity is negotiable and their exploitation is profitable.