It was only a few months ago that Indians used social media to unite against the November terrorism attacks. It’s great to see other groups use social media for other causes like physical attacks on women for instance. But the recent brouhaha with the Pink Chaddis vs. the Pink Condoms campaign shows how hard it can be to organize and unite Indians on the web.
What exactly are the Pink Chaddis and Pink Condoms campaign?
This all started when a radical political group in Mangalore, the Sri Ram Sena, decided to take laws into their own hand. Declaring themselves the “custodians of Indian Culture,” they attacked, beat up and kicked women in bar in Mangalore. Why? Because they were in a bar, which is ‘un-Indian.’ But beating up women…. isn’t that… shouldn’t that be un-Indian too?!?!!?
That’s why the Pink Chaddis campaign was started. Four women decided that enough was enough – people need to start respecting women’s rights and stop letting this kind of stuff happen. They set up a blog and a Facebook page to band together supporters of women’s rights and to use non-violence to build awareness. They collected underwear (and pictures of underwear) from all their supporters and are sent it to the Sri Ram Sena for Valentine’s Day.
Their social media efforts helped them gain support from over 44,000 people. (which is awesome!)
While they managed to get a lot of support, they irked a group of 2,000 people who support the Pink Condom campaign, a counter to the Pink Chaddis women. The Pink Condom crew dragged religion into this whole controversy and found fault with the fact that the girls behind Pink Chaddis called themselves the “Consortium of Pubgoing Loose and Forward Women,” referred to panties, targeted other Hindu political groups and disrespected the ‘Om’ symbol in their logo. (and they sent the women pink condoms…).
How could they have avoided this social media war?
Both groups are against physically attacking women. So why then, couldn’t both groups have worked together? Instead of setting up a blog-movement in response to the Pink Chaddis campaign, the Pink Condom group should have contacted the women and worked on a comprise. Or, vice versa. Either way, both groups should have communicated with each other.
Why?
Together, both groups created a lot of awareness in the news, but the media focused more on their disagreement than on their joint stance against mistreatment of women. Also, in the days leading up to Valentine’s Day, the controversy was growing so strong that some people didn’t know which group to support. It was easier to stay out of the mess completely than to choose a side. So even though both groups were essentially fighting for the same cause, they missed the opportunity to gain more support and put up a united front against radical political groups.
Both blogs have now issued cordial responses to each other, but it may be too late as is apparent in these comments.
This whole incident also shows how segregated India still is when it comes to religion. Reading the comments on the Pink Condoms blog, it is painfully obvious that many of their supporters were more concerned with ‘defending’ their religion than they were about the mistreatment of the women in Mangalore. It’s also apparent that they didn’t read the Pink Chaddis blog, and were placing all their faith in the words published on the Pink Condoms blog.
So here’s 2 suggestions to future campaigns that use social media to unite the masses:
1. Educate the masses about Social Media - I find that Indians still place a lot of faith in mainstream media and this trust is transferring the the blogosphere. Let people know that *anyone* can write a blog. And maybe *anyone* isn’t necessarily qualified or educated enough about what they are saying. People should take what they read online at face value and understand that blogs *may not* be the most credible of sources. (I’m not trying to set the blogosphere back 10 years, it’s just people need to be aware of this!!)
2. Be aware of religion differences that may exist, and address them - Since religion is such a sensitive topic in India, people behind campaigns that target everyone should display extra sensitivity to be successful. (It might not be fair, but it’s reality). Put up a disclaimer explaining the campaign’s stance on religious views, and make sure it’s widely visible. And be prepared to deal calmly with religion-based outbursts and verbal attacks in a timely fashion.
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I hope this helps, and for the record, I’m really glad that the Pink Chaddis campaign was started and with the support they received. I really hope they can grow from their tiff with the Pink Condoms to avoid such disagreements in the future.
P.S. I will not approve any comments that focus exclusively on who was right and wrong, and religion this and that. Please restrict yourself to leaving comments that lead to a mature discussion on the topic of this post.
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Excellent round up! The pink condom campaign was only on my peripheral vision & somehow missed out on the action happening out there on the blogs.
Am not going to go through the social media war in detail, not worth it. But would certainly like to comment on your final observations wrt educating the masses on social media.
Bloggers & journalists, when it comes to events happening around us, have to follow these simple tasks: (1) To collect information. (2) To cross check it. (3) To analyze it. (4) To present it. (tx @prempanicker Guess this should correspond to your observation 1
This funda of yours brings me back to the ckunte brouhaha, where he was “forced / coerced / persuaded” by NDTV to publish an apology about his statement on Barkha Dutt.
I think its time that bloggers move out of the “passion” domain into understanding that they are considered serious advocates of a school of thought. Their subscribers and followers give them that power. This power, unintentially, also makes them “public media”
Hence, it is important that they understand the consequences of words and expressions used. Maybe, someone can launch a barcamp that weds journalism fundas to blogging for serious bloggers?
Sanjeev
Good post. I hadn’t heard about the Pink Condom Campaign until now. Supported the Pink Chaddi Campaign though.
@Prem @Sanjeev Thanks for your thoughts. I agree, a barcamp that weds journalism and blogging would be a great start, and would undoubtedly lead to press coverage on responsible blogging. Maybe in the near future something will spring up eh?
@9_6 I’m glad you support the Pink Chaddis