“Seeking FAIR, beautiful, educated bride...” - advert after advert of the matrimony pages of leading Indian dailies echo the same cliché. Strangely, those dark and dusky beauties admired by men around the world don’t seem to have any takers in this predominantly Asian-skinned society. “...a fairer skin in weeks...” screams an advert, implying that Mr. Right is out there somewhere, waiting for the dark girl to get fairer. Or that the journey from unemployed to career woman is driven by a tube of fairness cream.

While the world lauds the exotic, dusky Indian woman, the Indian society is engrossed in unearthing some magic potion to change dark skin to creamy white. India is perhaps the largest market for fairness creams. A hard-to-believe 60% of the skincare market is ruled by skin-lightening products. It would be a tad unfair to accuse these light-skin propagators of creating a prejudice against darker women. If there is a demand for skin-lighteners, business houses are bound to capitalize on it. The existing prejudice is being exploited, and even encouraged.

Indian women have a desire to look more attractive, and believe that whiter skin is the only way to attain that beauty. Beauty is fairness and fairness is beauty... the Indian woman is programmed to believe so. Flip through magazines or watch Indian TV commercials, you’ll rarely find a dark-skinned model. Anyone would begin to believe that dark Indians don’t exist. Most Bollywood (Indian film industry) actresses are light-skinned too, barring a few exceptions.

Elders of the family are often enlightening parents on home remedies for dark skin. Uncles sympathize with the father, aunts offer beauty treatments. And the child grows up hearing how dark skin is a bane. Parents worry about finding a good match. Everyone knows how hard it is for a dark girl to land a good proposal, let alone getting married.

An obsession with fair skin seems to dominate in warmer countries with dark-skinned people. A historical example is Cleopatra, the queen of Egypt. She was said to pamper her skin extensively with milk baths and honey treatments, so that it lightened. India has had a 2000 year old background of caste system. The rich upper caste never had to toil in the sun and consequently, may have been fairer. Not so for the sun-burnt lower castes who labored in the fields. Possibly, this has led to fair skin being a cultural symbol of wealth and superiority. Maybe, one doesn’t have to go as far back into history. The colonization of India by the British may have given rise to the concept that white skin is a symbol of power.

Whatever the origin of the ‘fair is beautiful’ notion, it has a likeness to racism. Racial discrimination is defined as ‘treating people differently through social division into categories not necessarily related to race’. While ‘racism’ gives this issue a more socio-political touch, it is more of a cultural attitude amongst Indians. It definitely puts the darker woman at a disadvantage.

Discrimination at home, in society, at school and even in the ‘marriage market’ plagues the average dark woman of India. In the larger Indian context a woman’s life tends to revolve around marriage. The truth is that the fairer woman does have a competitive edge. The harsh reality is that ‘fairness factor’ is deeply ingrained in the Indian minds of males and females alike.

The unfortunate reality in India appears to be that women get ahead in life and feel more confident when they have a lighter skin color. How does this psyche affect the Indian woman? Most dark-skinned women grow up wishing that they were born with lighter skin. They spend time and money on various products that claim to make one fairer. They even resort to regular skin bleaching in spite of being aware that it is harmful. It is not just social pressure and the desire to be attractive that makes women take such steps...The social viewpoint leads them to believe that they are inferior in some ways. The measures come as an attempt to overcome this inferiority complex.

In spite of everything, some women do realize their potential, discover their talents and manage to overcome their complex. It makes sense to educate the woman, built her self-confidence and help her to understand that the color of her skin does not define the course of her life. But this is easier said that done.

Not every woman would have the strength to override an inbuilt insecurity, to overcome a sense of inadequacy. These are complexes that a discriminating society has bestowed upon her; complexes that will take the enlightening of an entire society to reverse.

As India goes global, the Indian woman still looks for respite, because the term ‘fairer sex’ is being taken all too literally.