Half-clad and barely eight-year-old, the child shivered while the elders, well protected from the cold, sat in the audience at Parade Ground on Thursday.

The child, whose identity is yet to be known because he was taken away, was made to sit under a tap on a tableau exhibited by the Dewas Municipal Corporation that has completed construction of a barrage.

The Madhya Pradesh Commission for Protection of Child Rights took cognizance of footage aired by local television channels and asked for a report from the district collector. Commission Member Vibhanshu Joshi said the district administration had been asked to provide medical attention to the child.

Ironically, the tableau won the third prize.

While everything else was artificial, only the boy and the tap water were real. The audience included the district collector and the superintendent of police.

Mayor Rekha Varma said she was not present during the function but claimed that the child was not supposed to feature in the tableau, only a bucket. She said she has called for strict action against the guilty.

After the local photographers pointed to the child’s ordeal, the man (seen clapping in the background) took him away.