Women are slapped, kicked, abused and raped in popular shows like 'Naa Aana Iss Des Laado', 'Balika Vadhu' and 'Pratigya' that reach over 130 million households in India and they seem to be doing little to empower women. These supposedly socially relevant shows started as attempts to break away from the chestnut of kitchen politics and tackle themes like female infanticide, child marriage and discrimination. But soon they turned out to be half-hearted efforts, showing violence towards women rather than creating awareness against such atrocities. Of late, these shows have been depicting scenes where a husband physically abuses his wife only because she stands up against him, or in another show, the husband slaps his wife hard for arguing with him. How these shows talk about women's empowerment then, many viewers ask. Such depiction of subjugation is 'intolerable', according to noted actress and social activist Shabana Azmi…as I read @ the link of IANS...