Shaadi.com removes skin colour 'filter' after petition

Dating website Shaadi.com has responded to a Change.org petition to remove a 'skin colour' filter from the portal.

 

The portal had a colour filter that asked users to indicate the colour of their skin. A Dallas resident, Hetal Lakhani filed this petition to remove of descriptors like fair, wheat and dark.

 

In a statement issued by Shaadi.com and shared with Campaign India, a spokesperson stated that the stand was taken many years ago to eliminate this filter from search, but the filter was still seen on the site as they had missed removing it.

 

The spokesperson said: "We do not ask any of our members to share their skin colour and hence there is no form of discrimination on the basis of that either. It has been many years since we’ve taken this stand. Simply put, since we do not ask for skin colour during registration or at any point thereafter, it possibly cannot show up in the search filters as well. That said, the filter that was visible on the website, was something we missed removing and it had absolutely no place or purpose on the platform. We were more than happy to get rid of it."