Gender Based Discrimination: Portrayal of Women in Indian Television

In this paper the portrayal of women in Indian media has been discussed with regards to the impact it has on the society and its effect on the viewers. It aims to show how the female gender has been perceived and projected to the audience as weaker section.

The patriarchal ideas, which has been a practice of the lost times seems to make a return in the soap operas and its role in impacting the progressive mind-set is perceived.

They show women as a dependent being who has to be always in the shadow of other men or else she has shown as a vamp whose only job is to destroy another women characters life in the name of entertainment . In a weak attempt to show woman empowerment, they are grossly undermined. The largest audience of this content are women and we should understand how this will take a toll on their ideals and perception of self in the world.

The discussion of subjugation of woman in Indian serials and films and its consequences is the need of the hour and this paper has attempted to study it.

Keywords: women, patriarchy, subjugation, empowerment,