outside the family throughout their lives. They are
underrepresented in important jobs of governance
and decision making. At the same time women
particularly Indian women lack the freedom to go out
and seek health services provided by the
Government. Antenatal and postnatal care are
beyond the reach of many Indian women, majority of
whom face health hazards, lack of nutrition and are
often anaemic and malnourished. The typical Indian
women first cooks for the family, make sure that the
entire family eats before her and herself is the last
one to have her meals, or whatever is left. Female
infant mortality rates are higher than male infant
mortality rates. The mass media needs to focus on
this health issue of women by giving proper coverage
to the various health schemes and opportunities
provided by the government, especially those of
economically weaker sections of society.
Even regarding health issues, the media needs to
focus the same with not just a pro-active but a
positive approach. Regarding coverage of important
health problems such as HIV / AIDS, women should
not be projected as the only cause and carrier of
these deadly diseases as it leads to ostracization of
women. In the field of advertising, the media needs to
be cautious while reporting studies on women related
subjects which are usually driven by market forces.
Sometimes women are shown as preferring men who
are macho, having big fancy cars while some studies
show that women are “born to shop”. Such studies are
only made to draw attention and at the behest of the
customer i.e. the person / industry which is funding
the study and do not project the real picture. Women
are portrayed for feminine beauty, for infusing sex
appeal and never in a serious light. All this has led to
increase of obscenity in media. The social perception
of women has to be changed to curtail obscenity and
pornography in media.
Another glaring problem facing women in India is the
lack of education which needs to be highlighted by
the media. The importance of education cannot be
under estimated as education alone enables women
to have their choice, set their own priorities, seek
knowledge and information. However the literacy
rates among women continues to be lower than those
for men. India is among the twenty countries of the
world where the gender gap in education is the widest.
While the media does make an effort to cover
womens problem and draws the attention of policy
makers to issue requiring immediate attention such
as the adverse sex ratio, infant and maternal
mortality, crime against women etc but this coverage
is very limited and stereotyped. The rest of the space
is occupied by less important issues such as
fashion, glamour, weight reduction and tips to
sharpen “feminine instincts” and less space / time is
devoted to issue regarding career opportunities,
health awareness, entrepreneurship, financial
management etc. Even in television serials women
may be shown as the Central characters but there
projection is limited and shown in an extreme manner.
The women are either shown as a “bechari” helpless
victim or as a vamp or scheming tormentor. At the
same time men are shown as either extremely
dominant or as weak, indecisive men who are
ensnared by a scheming, calculative women who is
ready to use her feminine charms to achieve any
goal. TV serials should be close to reality and try to
check what is going wrong in society. Women are
hardly ever projected as being “normal”. The
tendency is only to portray them either as a virtuous
Sita who spent 14 years in the forest in exile with her
husband Ram and was ready for Agni Pariksha or a
calculative Kaikayee who did not blink an eyelid while
conspiring with her maid Manthara and extorting her
promise from her husband to send Ram and Sita to
exile. There is nothing that is “in between” these two
extremes. The TV soaps are full of cases of adultery,
divorces etc where characters break the law with
impunity. Such negative images are extremely
harmful and often lead to apathy qua women in
The media can play a very important role in the
empowerment of women in India. It cannot be ignored
that the growth of women’s education and their entry
in every sphere of life have contributed to the growth
of media. Women have crucial role to play in society
in important issues such as controlling population
growth, spread of literacy etc. This can however only
be achieved if women are given their due respect and
recognition and not deliberately marginalized by male
domination. The print and electronic media have to
play a vital role in effectively conveying the message
that needs to be conveyed i.e. women have the
potential and can be the prime movers of change in
society.
Media often indulge in sensationalizing the news of
atrocities on women. As a result instead of
highlighting the exploitation of women they end up
becoming the cause of increase of violence as the
excess coverage of such incident tends to glorify
crime against women. There is a lack of sensitivity in
the media reporting regarding problems concerning
women. While the media may be careful in not
disclosing a rape victims name, it makes a mockery
of this by disclosing the name and address of the
victims family, totally ignoring the guidelines laid
down by the Press council of India.
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