India's 'dangerous obsession'
By Geeta Pandey, BBC News in Delhi This tragic incident once again shows just how dangerous India's obsession with skin colour is. From a young age, girls with darker skin tones are called derogatory names. They are bullied in schools, on playgrounds, and even within homes, where unflattering comparisons are made with siblings who may have a fairer complexion. In matrimonial columns, skin colour is almost always emphasised - prospective brides are described as being fair, wheat-ish, light or dark brown, but almost never as dark. Popular media constantly reinforces that image with touched up photographs of actors and models. And this makes many women with darker skin tones grow up feeling inadequate, even ugly. Rules bar commercials from showing people with darker skin colour as unattractive or unhappy, and in recent years advertisements have become a bit more subtle but, at the end of the day, the message they still give is that fairer is better. In the past few years, there have been some counter-campaigns calling people to celebrate dark skin, but clearly a lot more needs to be done to increase the reach of this message. Until that happens, such discriminatory attitudes will continue to ruin lives.DISCLAIMER: The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by Readers and Contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policy of Multimedia Group Limited.
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