Innovative protests get mass support

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There’s an art to staging an effective protest. Even a small issue can get a mass support with an innovative campaign. While previously, we have seen protests like the Slutwalk, flash mobs for issues ranging from corruption to equal rights for women, and the much-talked about Pink Chaddi campaign, there’s a new one to add to the list.
A Chinese student recently launched an occupy movement in the men’s toilets. Fed up with long queues for ladies’ toilets, Li Tingting made headlines when she and 20 women marched into a men’s public toilet in Guangzhou, carrying colourful placards calling for equal waiting times for both sexes. Interestingly, officials in Guangzhou responded to her movement and agreed to increase the number of women’s toilets by 50 per cent.
In the last few years, the number of innovative campaigns has increased manifold. Many of these don’t even require going out on the street, just a status message on Facebook serves the purpose, like the one in which girls had to update their Facebook status with the colour of their bras to spread awareness about breast cancer.
While the campaigns have increased, one wonders if these are really effective. Umang Sabarwal, who initiated the Delhi leg of the Slutwalk — Besharmi Morcha, says that not all the campaigns get similar attention as Slutwalk got, but they surely create a ripple effect among the community concerned.
“At least these campaigns mobilise like-minded people who want to work for that particular cause. Many women would have thought of raising their voice against the people who stare at them, but only a Besharmi Morcha could bring them together,” says Umang.
Kuber Sharma, social media evangelist at Must Bol, says that his experience at administering various social causes on the social sites have been “very exciting”. “Sometimes, the response that you get is just phenomenal. With various mediums to fill one up about the causes that people worldwide take up, everybody wants to be associated with a cause,” says Kuber, who also thinks that people have started supporting the campaigns for “good karma”.
College student Shivani Sharma says that she has been a part of many campaigns including the Besharmi Morcha and the candlelight vigil for Arushi Talwar to show her support for the causes. “Just a presence at the venue or one FB update says a lot about how eagerly the masses are waiting for change. If not soon, the campaigns would surely bring a change in sometime,” she says.
Some protests, like the Gay Pride Parade, have even brought a big relief to certain communities. Aashish Awasthi (name changed) says that if there was no gay parade, “people like us would have never felt strong enough to come out in the open with our sexual preferences.”