From a couple of hours of entertainment on the weekends to 24-hour channels exclusively for the kids, there has definitely been a big surge in children's entertainment through television over the years. Despite this growth, it remains that most of these channels are surviving on Japanese cartoon shows dubbed into Hindi and other local languages. There is definitely a clear dearth of indigenous productions in these channels. Most of the Indian productions have been limited to animations of our mythological characters. With tremendous IT expertise, India has the potential of bringing about its own culture of animation series, just as Japan has been doing so successfully. This article conducts a descriptive study of the current content on Indian kids' channels and questions the scarcity of popular indigenous programming.

The story of the transformation of Indian television is here for all of us to see. With four channels in 1990 to around 400 jostling for our attention in 2009 (and many others in the pipeline), the story is remarkably unbelievable. This revolution has set trends, trends that moved from the general to the specific. From the days when something called a `general entertainment channel' featured all kinds of shows for all types of audiences, there has been a pendulum shift towards niche channels for niche audiences. One such niche segment that has always attracted the broadcasters and advertisers is the kids segment. From the animated films by Walt Disney to Mougli's adventures on Jungle Book, to the rise of Pokémon, Shin-Chan and Hagemaru, kids programming has undergone a sea change. The Indian television landscape has also delivered on this front and has managed to rake huge returns. The lacuna, however, is that, despite the availability of a 24x7 slot, kids channels are thriving on foreign content, which oscillate between American and Japanese shows that are being dubbed into Hindi and other regional languages.

Why do kids watch cartoons? There would be numerous answers to this question. Children usually grow up listening to stories and somewhere down the line these audio-visual comics satiate their needs to listen to interesting stories. Most of the kids are initiated to television viewing through their parents for different purposes, including for entertainment and building awareness. And kids develop their own ideas on situations and events. Mostly their understanding between reality and fiction is quite blurred. Their imagination is spurred further by the animated images that adorn the TV screen.

The Films Division of India was the first provider of children's content in the era of Doordarshan. Though in the late 1980s, Doordarshan began programming of Disney cartoons, it was a visual treat reserved for the weekends for the kids. Tom & Jerry, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and their associates fascinated one and all. These mostly had stories of chases, victory of good over evil among other themes. The fascination with animation was ramified by superhero animation programs, the earliest like He-Man and Spiderman. The element of entertainment reigned supreme. With the onslaught of satellite TV revolution in the early 1990s, kids programming also moved on. From a couple of hour's segment on the weekend, kids programming metamorphosed into daily morning and evening segments on satellite channels. The year 1996 saw the entry of the first exclusive kids' channel in the form of cartoon Network. Things changed from then on. Today, there are around 10 kids' channels on the Indian television and there are others in the pipeline.

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