Dear Patanjali Products, ‘Dark Complexion’ is not a skin ailment!

Our country’s obsession with fair complexion is no secret. Fair skin has always been the desire of people since ages and has been associated with beauty. “Let’s scrub out that tan” is a common refrain in beauty parlours in India, where girls grow up with constant reminders that only fair skin is beautiful. From Sunday classified ads looking for “a fair good looking girl’’ to neighbourhood aunties advising saffron paste to “maintain the complexion”, the  subtle sign are  present everywhere. This obsession of white skin has given a golden opportunity to the cosmetics and FMCG companies to heavily bank on it.   Our top most celebrities like Shah Rukh Khan,Hrithik Roshan  Aishwarya Rai,  Sonam Kapoor , John Abraham have millions of fans looking upto them and all have the dubious honour of endorsing a skin lightening product.     Though skin fairness products are widely used worldwide, their excessive consumption is mostly found from the Asian and African countries.

Today , the consumers can find a wide range of fairness products; fairness creams, fairness soaps, fairness face washes -- all that promise to make our "dark" faces, knees, elbows, and other parts of the body multiple shades fairer. Some of the popular ones are Fair & Lovely, Fairever, L’Oreal, Olay and Neutrogena. Continuing with the trend, in a new low, a company which promised to be different from the rest of the lot- ‘Patanjali’ fueled  the very thought while marketing their "Beauty Cream" by calling ‘dark complexion’ as a skin ailment. In an ad published in Deccan Chronicle on 17th December, Patanjali, advertised their "Beauty Cream" to heal dry skin, wrinkles, and dark complexion. The product claims to heal and give you the confidence of 100% natural beauty. And a careful look at the ad, shows how products from other MNCs "are full of chemicals while Patanjali products are "natural"!

Is it not sad? A company that swears by everything that is ‘swadeshi’ is   propagating an idea about ‘fair skin’ which was a gift handed down to us by British. As for calling ‘dark complexion’ as a ‘skin ailment’ is so ironic as leaving a few regions, most of us have wheatish to dusky complexion. This type of advertising is really irresponsible.

Beauty is definitely beyond colour. It's time  as a nation we  raise our voice against these brands and let them know that  every shade of skin tone is beautiful. Real change can come  when majority of the citizens let go their light skin fetish and cherish their own skin colour. Advertisements which promote  colourism equality and showcase the idea that being darker will not stop anyone from achieving their dreams.Also as parents we need to educate our children on the importance of striving to be comfortable in their own bodies.

This world be surely be a better place if we all our  comfortable in our own skin and realise that there is more to life than skin colour.