Thoughtsgi

India's obsession with fair skin is well known and deep-rooted. Colour prejudice is widespread and practiced openly across the country. Indian society believes skin colour determines a person's worth. In our culture, all virtues are associated with "fair" while anything dark has negative connotations. TV programmes, movies, billboards, advertisements, they all reinforce the idea that "fair is beautiful". Colorism, the bias against people of darker skin is partly a product of colonial prejudices, and it has been aggravated by caste, regional differences and nation’s film industry, which has long promoted lighter-skinned artists. Preferences for light-toned skin over dark when it comes to marriages and some jobs are still upending the lives of hundreds of thousands of Indians. From the beginning India's media and advertisement industries are promoting the idea that women with dark complexions should aspire to be fairer. Even after attempts to ad...