This article attempts to map the portrayal of women in popular soap operas on television in India. It begins with the discourses around portrayal of women on Doordarshan in the pre-liberalisation era and goes on to analyse a few soap operas in the past one decade. With substantive review of visual texts, it aims to disprove the claim that there is a paradigm shift especially with respect to the portrayal of women in the contemporary and so-called progressive soap operas. It concludes by comparing all the phases of development of television in India with respect to construction of women and stating how very little and inconsequential change has occurred in this regard in spite of all the efforts from the state and the intellectual community.
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