Imagining an Audience him into a relationship instead of isolating him/' a production style "of the people, for the people, and by the people."3 The pivotal point of DD's failure in its developmental mission was located in its inability to productively reach "the rural masses," "women," and "children." The need to rethink DD's investment in "women's issues" arose out of the understand-88 ing that the nation could not progress and socio-economic development would remain distorted as long as women were left behind as the lesser half of the society. The 1985 report, in a chapter titled "Women: The Neglected Half;" noted that DD had "failed to fulfil its expected role in furthering the stated national objective of women's equality," and urged that "the improvement of women's condition, status and image be defined as a major objective for Doordarshan/'2 Referring to the findings, submitted to the Working Group, of the seminar conducted by the Centre for Women's Development Studies and the Committee for Portrayal of Women in the Media, the Working Group noted that there was a wide distance between the national policy objectives vis a vis women's equality and development and DD's present role and programming, and that the general tenor.of DD's programmes ran counter to its stray efforts to be purposive on women's behalf. The negative stereotyping of women on DD was found to be a direct result of its dependence on commercial cinema for programmes. The Working Group went on to recommend that DD should formulate clearcut guidelines regarding the positive portrayal of women on television: This portrayal must take note of women in all facets of their lives: as workers and significant contributors to family survival and the national economy; it must further endeavour to integrate women on terms of equality in all sectors of national life and the development process. These guidelines must emphasize that the "women's dimension" must form an integral part of all DD programmes and not be merely confined to Women's Programmes, nor to isolate attempts to discuss women's issues.3 The recommendations of the Working Group, as Deepa Dhanraj has pointed out, are based on the two premises that the integration into the development process will automatically achieve equality for women, and that DD as a government institution is obliged to execute this national objective.4 To a certain extend, DD can claim to have observed this obligation through spots on the girl child, issues on health, family planning, etc. These "affirmative efforts" stem from the traditional model of integrating women into development. To quote Dhanraj, these "token attempts of the "add women and stir" formula are doomed to be ineffective just as this approach has failed to deliver tangible benefits for women."5 Another instance of affirmative action on the part of DD was the increase in number of women oriented serials (e.g. Udaan, Adhikar, Hum Log, and a few telefilms like Kya Yeh Gustakhi Hai}. It has been observed that these serials often gave out messages that could only be read as contradictory when placed in the context of the rest of the programmes and the advertisements that sponsor these serials. Thus Prabha Krishnan and Anita Dighe observe: IrUhe current climate of commercialization, even feminist texts cannot be telecast Journal of Arts <& Ideas