Dear friend,

This is o draw your attention to a phenomenon, which is likely to cause concern to some one as sensitive as you are. As you are aware, March 8 is a day when we celebrate and commemorate our rights as equal partners in society.

However, of late, there has been a disturbing attempt on the part of some cosmetic companies and television channels to appropriate this day to further their own agenda. This has been done in a clever, crafty and insidious manner.

For example, Ponds, a cosmetic company, which preaches the importance of a fair and fragrant woman and upholds these attributes to be of supreme importance in portraying confident and empowered womanhood, is sponsoring spots, contests and film-festivals on women’s day on Sony and several other regional channels.

There is one such sponsored contest, for example on Sony, which asks the viewer to cast his/her vote for the “sampoorn nari”. And the choice is between three women from popular serials shown on Sony channels : Kusum from Kkusum, Gowri from Kutumb and Heena from Heena.

While on the one hand it is clearly a clever marketing strategy to popularize these serials, it is also a shocking revelation of what a cosmetic company and a multi-national television channel is showcasing as a liberated woman. Kusum, the silently suffering yet ever smiling and accepting loyal wife who is waiting patiently for a wayward husband to come back to her. Heena, whose very existence has always been hanging from a thin thread – how much faith her husband has in her loyalty. And Gowri, a newly married woman who married against her will to please her parents, and predictably enough starts falling in love with the very husband she once despised. She swiftly converts herself into a dutiful wife.

Maybe the question we should ask is what is so liberating about these women? Why is our choice of “complete” being defined by market forces in this insidious manner? Because a cosmetic company has has selected three pretty fair faces to be showcased as “sampoorn”, and a multinational television channel is airing it for commercial reasons? How can they be defined as independent or empowered or even a “sampoorn nari”? For is it not important for a woman to elevate herself from these trappings to begin her journey towards empowerment? Is it not that by these very contests our independence of choice is being manipulated? And aren’t these the very attributes of so called “sampoorn” woman that the feminist fraternity has been fighting against?

If this contest, and such other contests hurt your sensibility, I urge you to lodge your protest with Ponds India Ltd and Sony Entertainment Television. Because if you choose to remain silent, it could be taken as compliance.

In solidarity,

Ananya