Shaadi.com Removes ‘Skin Colour Filter’ After 1600 People Sign Online Petition

The fight against colourism is an ongoing battle in India. In February, the Health Ministry proposed a 5 years jail term and Rs 50 lakh fine for misleading advertisements that promote skin whitening. People have started questioning celebrities who endorse fairness creams and signing online petitions to ban “Fair & Lovely“.

According to NDTV, Hetal Lakhani from Dallas, USA, started another petition to take down the complexion filter on a matrimony portal. She wrote,

“Shaadi.com has a colour filter that asks users to indicate the colour of their skin using descriptors like ‘Fair’, ‘Wheatish’, and ‘Dark’ and allows users the ability to search for potential partners on the basis of their skin colour. We demand that Shaadi.com must permanently remove its skin colour filter to prevent users from selectively searching for matches based on their preferred skin colour.”

According to BBC, it received over 1,500 signatures within 14 hours after which the website took down the filter. They were quoted saying it “was not serving any purpose” and was a “product debris we missed removing”.

According to Insider, Johnson & Johnson has confirmed that they will be discontinuing their Neutrogena Fine Fairness line and Clean & Clear’s Clear Fairness line by saying,

“Conversations over the past few weeks highlighted that some product names or claims on our dark spot reducer products represent fairness or white as better than your own unique skin tone. This was never our intention – healthy skin is beautiful skin.”

The fight is far from over but these wins are certainly worth celebrating, don’t you think?

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