Undo damage done by fairness creams, give out a clear message that ‘Black is beautiful’
Hindustan Unilever, which perpetuated and reinforced deep seated racial, castist and colour prejudices in the Indian consumers’ psyche for decades through its skin whitening cream Fair and Lovely, thereby belittling and deriding dark skin, has decided to remove not just the word “fair” from the name of the product, but also stop using words like ‘ whitening’ and ‘lightening’. The manufacturer has said the company wants to adopt a holistic approach to beauty and celebrate all skin tones!
If one wants to take a charitable view of this sudden change of heart, one can say that the strong global movement against racial and colour prejudices, following the death of George Floyd on May 25 at the hands of Minneapolis police in the United States, influenced this decision. The uncharitable view would be the manufacturer is taking pre-emptive action in view of the government’s proposal to prohibit all advertisements pertaining to products promoting ‘fairness of the skin’ under the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act.
I do believe that it is the latter because this product has sold and garnered a big slice of the market on the strength of its advertisements, endorsed by film celebrities unabashedly brainwashing the viewers that you need to be fair in order be beautiful, to be successful and to find a spouse.
In the last several years, many social activists and women’s groups have taken up cudgels against not just Fair and Lovely, but a host of other skin whitening, lightening products in the market, but without much success. Even criticism of film actors who endorsed such whitening products, did not have the desired effect.
Last August, even the Indian Army took objection to these advertisements and said those depicting actors in military fatigues needed prior approval from the Army. One of the triggers was a shameful advertisement of a fairness cream for men, Emami Fair and Handsome, using actors in Army Uniform. It shows a cadet intending to join the army using his sister’s fairness cream and later when he joins the Army, Shahrukh Khan, as an officer, encourages him to use the Fair and Handsome cream, saying-“zindagi me dono zaroori hai. Dam bhi, handsome bhi”. Again -- the message is clear -- you are handsome if you are fair and you are successful if you are handsome.
Finally, the government has stepped in and used the obvious route, the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act to put stop to advertisements of fairness creams. The draft Amendment Bill, put out for public comments by the union ministry of health and Family welfare in February this year, basically plugs three main lacunae in the original Act. (1) It changes the definition of advertisement to include all media -- old and new. So unlike the original law, it covers advertisements on the electronic media, internet, websites, so that no media escapes the purview of the law. Equally important, the definition of advertisement also covers endorsement. So celebrity endorses cannot get away.
Second, it enhances the punishment for contravention -- in case of first conviction, the penalty may extend to a fine of Rs 10 lakh and imprisonment of two years and in case of a subsequent conviction, fine up to Rs 50 lakh and imprisonment up to five years.
But even more important, the law prohibits, among others, advertisements pertaining to products promoting ‘Fairness of the skin’. Thus the Bill, when it becomes a law, puts stop to any advertisement pertaining to products that promise to whiten or lighten your skin.
Since Covid-19 has put a big question mark on when the Parliament will meet again, the government should bring in the amendment bill through the ordinance route, thus ending all advertisements of fairness creams at the earliest. Side by side, the government should also start a campaign to undo the damage done by fairness creams all these years and give out a clear message that ‘Black is beautiful’.