Opinion Saints and sinners

The media reports with depressing regularity crimes against girls,women. On any given day,crime-based news shows have women as victims of random criminal acts. It’s in our entertainment shows too: all soaps worth their saas,their bahu or their parivaar revolve around unkindness,injustice to the female of the species. Two examples: in the new serial,Chhal… Sheh aur Maat (Colors),Neha misplaces her “just married” husband and discovers that the expressionless Kabir has kidnapped him so that she is forced to play her lookalike his wife,Aditi,in order to dupe his family. Charming honeymoon,wouldn’t you say?

Or in the frighteningly possible Dil Se Di Dua Saubhagyavati Bhava (Life OK),a wife is incarcerated by her “loving husband” because he wants to be the only one to torture her. These are just two in a long list of inequities female characters are expected to grin and bear.

In a bid at modernity,some serials show women on an equal footing with a man — in their personal relationship,at least — Bade Achche Lagte Hain (Sony),Diya Aur Baati Hum (Star Plus),to name a few. Other shows like Punar Vivaah (Zee) or Na Tum Kuch Bole Na Maine Kuch Kaha (Colors) are now tackling the vexatious issue of widowhood/abandonment and single parenthood.

TV soaps have also taken the lead in addressing social evils that afflict women — Balika Vadhu and Naa Aana Is Des Mein Laado (Colors ) on child marriage and female foeticide,respectively,are just the best known.

But despite these,the overriding problem is that serials portray women as sacrificial lambs for whom suffering is the major preoccupation and occupation. Serial after serial dresses them up in wedding finery and celebrates their sacrifices. Thus,young men and women watching Indian television have few positive female role models. TV news anchors across the news channels have been one exception: they are intelligent,accomplished and hold their own against male colleagues and guests.

But entertainment TV hasn’t got there. Few female characters work at more than their make-up or outside the home. The professional woman we encounter are subservient to the men. Just watch Parichay (Colors) in which an outstanding female lawyer is always more concerned about her husband’s welfare: even when she is kidnapped,she worries about whether he has eaten or not.

Women are portrayed as guardians of their parental or marital families,usually caught between the two: Niyati (Sahara) is just one such unfortunate girl. And if a woman is strong,competent,she is Hitler Didi (Zee). No serial dares call a man Hitler. In rare cases,where a woman is at the top,she is “mental” like the possessed-obsessed female boss in Kya Hua Tera Vaada (Sony) who is lusting after her junior male colleague.

What we need are strong,self-confident individuals as female role models for girls to identify with or emulate and for young men to respect as equals. We also need more male characters who respect women and treat them as equals.

Contrast our serials with Missing (Star World) where Ashley Judd is a former CIA agent who can kick ass and more,viciously and where it hurts; or Scott and Bailey (BBC Entertainment) about two policewomen who solve crimes and pull a gun as fast as any policeman — and they report to a female boss who calls the shots; Luther (BBC Entertainment) has a woman as Luther’s senior police officer.

Must mention the internationally-acclaimed Danish political drama currently on BBC Four in England: Borgen. It’s an absolutely riveting series about coalition politics,the media and the personal lives of politicians and journalists. Importantly,the lead character is a woman prime minister,and there’s a female journalist who is a pain in the **** of her male colleagues. Both face condescension and chauvinism and ride out both. Now why can’t we have something like that?

shailaja.bajpai@expressindia.com