India's Obsession with Fair Skin

For number of years we have seen that market are flooded with so many fairness products. The number of fairness and skin whitening products that have been present for years and new ones flooding the market even today is a strong indication that dark is still not acceptable in India and also not considered to be beautiful in India.

According to a report titled India Fairness Cream and Bleach Market Overview, 2018-2023 by a US-based market research company: “...the women’s fairness cream category is anticipated to achieve market revenues of more than Rs 5,000 crore (Dh2.69 billion) by year 2023.”

When we see fellow Indians face racism in other countries, we immediately takes stand and speaks up for their support. But we forget what is going in our society; there are people around us who give dark vs fair racist opinions. In Fact in our society parents tend to compare their children if their skin tone differs in any sense. There are some old age people who often bother the girls with dark skin to ‘whiten up’ so that they can become eligible for marriage.

 It plays a major task in deciding the probable worth of bride and groom in the Indian matrimonial market. Girls who are dark are asked to do well in their studies and form a successful career, so that they can get a desirable match. Parents in India don’t permit their children to play outside as they’ll get tanned. So many mothers used to say, Drink milk, not tea; it makes you fairer. I don’t understand if parents actually want their kid to have milk then why they need such statements of becoming fairer.

                      

What a parent should do?

Avoid fairy tales story because they are dangerous. Either there are beautiful and helpless princesses waiting for the prince charming to rescue them, or there are ones like Cinderella needing a makeover to woo a prince or Snow White who was the fairest of all if the mirror on the wall was to be believed. These stories will create colour judgement and it will create false reality that ‘Fair is beautiful’ which is not true at all.

Nowadays kids have fear for swimming because they have fear that their skin might darken and they would appear even less fair than their friends and siblings.

It is a duty of every parent to lesson or counsel on 'skin colour doesn't matter. Even they have to stop comparing their kids colour. When we stop racism (Fair or Dark) in our country and our home then only obsession for fair skin will stop.

Psychologist and relationship expert Mary George Varghese says educating people about such discrimination is necessary: "Education is the tool that can eradicate such practices from society. People should be trained to accept individuals the way they are, and made to realise that discrimination on the basis of colour is something that even the Constitution doesn't accept," she says.

The only thing whose whiteness we should worry about is the Taj Mahal, which is rapidly turning a greyish yellow-green and we should also concern about the whiteness of our thoughts which is becoming dark day by day.