The digital touch of change

Activism is now just a click away. Be it focusing on social issues, conducting awareness drives or campaigns to mobilise people, cyber activism has been creating an impact and binding people from all walks of life and age groups regardless of gender. Most importantly, it has been reaching out to those who are afraid to be vocal about their views.

 Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are being successfully used for activism or to register a protest. Blogs are also serving the same purpose and are stimulating hot debates online every now and then involving politicians and other known figures.

This new-age technology of connecting people has proved to be an impressive platform for various online campaigns.  The popular campaign by Greenpeace, called ‘Cats Save Tigers’, involved sharing of pictures of cute cuddly cats to spread awareness about the depleteing number of forests because of the cutting down of trees for industrial purposes. This has caused the population of tigers to go down in countries like India, Indonesia and Russia. The campaign got phenomenal response when thousands of people started  uploading photographs of their cats under the hash tag #CatsSaveTigers.

In 2009, members of Sri Ram Sena attacked a group of women in the name of moral policing. This evoked an unusual form of protest initiated by some women called the ‘Pink Chaddi Campaign’ which turned out to be a huge success with over 34,000 members collectively sending pink underwear to the Sri Ram Sena office
to protest against their actions.

The group founded by Nisha Susan, known as ‘The Consortium of Pub-Going, Loose and Forward Women’ blogged about the incident and garnered immense
support.

The ‘Ice Bucket Challenge’, which aimed at spreading awareness about Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), a serious disease, by pouring a bucket filled with ice water on the person who had taken up the challenge and posting the video online saw great success. The campaign raised $100 million according to a report by Forbes magazine.

Another notable campaign, ‘Jagore re’, was successful in creating awareness on the importance of voting. It was organised by Tata Tea, in association with Janagraha Center for Citizenship and Democracy, and helped people realise the power of a vote through cyber activism. The campaign even made the effort to design online tools to
register voters and tasted huge success.

To fight the rising crime against women, a website called ‘Feminism in India’ has become a mouthpiece for women who have been harassed. This brought the
perpetrators and their crime in public space.

 Recently, another campaign was organised against sexual harassment where people were invited to narrate their experience. “Social media is a very powerful tool and using popular culture and presenting it in a fun and interactive way for a cause cuts across many sections,” says Japleen Pasricha, founder of Feminism in India.com.

 The youth have been taking part in cyber activism in a major way and are willing and capable to bring in change. But cyber activism in India has a long way to go as not many people are computer literate. But the first few steps forward in this
direction indicate a promising future ahead.