The fight to stop skin lightening in India
09:55 Share

In 2013, Emami, an Indian beauty and wellness company, put out an advert for their skin lightening product 'Fair and Handsome'.

It features billionaire blockbuster actor Shah Rukh Khan telling a young man that he can get more attention and live a better life if he uses the product.

Kavitha Emmanuel who was campaigning to end colourism in India, saw the advert and decided to petition against it.

She managed to gather 20,000 signatures and went to the Emami headquarters to ask them to take it down.

Kavitha tells Anoushka Mutanda-Dougherty how she handed out boxes of dark chocolate with 'Dark and Handsome' written on them, to make her point.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more. Recent episodes explore everything from football in Brazil, the history of the ‘Indian Titanic’ and the invention of air fryers, to Public Enemy’s Fight The Power, subway art and the political crisis in Georgia. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: visionary architect Antoni Gaudi and the design of the Sagrada Familia; Michael Jordan and his bespoke Nike trainers; Princess Diana at the Taj Mahal; and Görel Hanser, manager of legendary Swedish pop band Abba on the influence they’ve had on the music industry. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the time an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at the President of the United States in protest of America’s occupation of Iraq; the creation of the Hollywood commercial that changed advertising forever; and the ascent of the first Aboriginal MP.

(Photo: Women with lightening cream on. Credit: Getty Images)