Selfie With Daughter- A sign of real change or just another fad?

Anyone who is a regular follower of social media and constantly barking TV new channels must be aware of a new social media fad – “Selfie With Daughter”. A campaign which have had its humble beginning from a not so known village – Birpur in Haryana few weeks back. Haryana, which is one of the notoriously famous states of India for its corrosive discrimination and violence against women and girl child.  The same state, few days back had come up with an innovative measure to bring gender equality in society which has now become a buzz word in every corner of society and the corridors of govt of India.

Our prime minister as always acknowledged a positive possibility in this social media campaign and urged the nation to take a selfie with their daughter to bring about a one step change in the mindset of our society. Nothing wrong in it and   it was not so difficult for one section of our ‘Janta’, which is hyper connected to social media and believes in taking part in any “Andolan” just by clicking on “I SUPPORT XYZ CAMPAIGN” to follow another wave of social change singlehandedly. Following the same pattern, this new idea of selfie with daughter has earned a huge popularity.

So what is wrong in that?

What prompted me to write this casual set of paragraphs- is the kind of criticism faced by an actress “Shruti Seth”, who dared to speak otherwise for “#selfie with daughter”. The kind of barrage of undignified comments and slanders she received on the same social media where the people suddenly started showing their ocean of love for their daughter, offers a clear but grim picture of double standard of our society.

However, any idea of a positive social change should not be derided in any case but a virtual support for any campaign has its very own limitations. We have seen it in Anna Hzaare’s Andolan against corruption. Innumerable people including youth supported the campaign on every platform of social media. But were the same people actively present and participating in it in real world –demystify the whole thing.

We are living in a strange time, where we all do intrinsically want to see a new burst of a propaganda or issue, until something new props up. Just imagine if the same luxury of internet was available some 100 years back and we were fighting for our freedom against British on facebook and twitter.

To take selfie with daughter is one thing and one time affair but to have a sensibility and treating both gender at par is another thing altogether and a regular attitude. Vivekananda once Said, “if you want to do something for betterment of women, just leave them alone .They can take care of themselves better than anyone”.

We shall be in no need of virtual campaigns like "#Selfie with Daughter”, if we bluntly accept our mental corruptness and mediocricity when it comes to accept the rest half of the population as human. To have common sense and being sensible enough towards our daughter will do better than toiling hard for an insignificant social crusade on facebook and twitter.

 As they say – a long journey starts with a single step. This so called social campaign is one of those initial steps, but it can never be the last one.