Could anyone ever have imagined that our inane television serials would be educative? Well, certainly not those who called television soaps serial killers, convinced that all they had to offer were decadent moral values. Or those who felt that they were turning Indians into idiots because of their sheer stupidity and their inability to talk about serious social issues. Er…I too had similar opinions.

Not any more. These shows may not talk about serious social issues, but they are tackling serious social issues!!

A recent study of 2,700 households (in villages in the four states – Bihar, Goa, Haryana, and Tamil Nadu – and Delhi) from 2001 to 2003, by Robert Jensen of Brown University and Emily Oster of the University of Chicago shows that television is actually helping rural Indian women come out of their shell. Their attitudes seemingly underwent a change, even to an extent that women’s…