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#Metoo

#Metoo … Will this change social behavior in a larger context?

Saw someone close to you post #Metoo? Are you angry towards your society for its unethical behavior and the pain caused? Do you feel like changing the society by liking the status and commenting your support? Do you feel that you are a part of greater voice?
#Metoo campaign has obviously given voice to many women and surprisingly to men also. But, will these voices make any change in the behavior of the society and eliminate the harassment experienced by women in particular? If these questions are asked to any person when the campaign is at its peak, answer would be “Hell Yes!”. But the same question asked after few months, result would be different. Online campaigns such as #Metoo drags youngsters, in particular, urban audience. While, it can be thought as the initial step towards the societal change, it is far away from holistic achievement of social change.
Let’s have a little thought on this issue. Make an assumption that there are only two types of audience, one is urban and the other is rural. India has 37.7 crore living in urban areas and 83.3 crore living in rural areas making 31% of total population living in urban areas. This means, these campaigns reach only 31% of the population. Assumption that only urban population gets the nerve is safe because, these hashtags make sense for those who are out, interacting with a wide spectrum of public. This broad spectrum is found only in urban areas and in particular, only in big cities. Any mass uprisings spear headed by online campaigns are carried out in cities rather than any other areas. For example, after Nirbhaya rape incident, people have taken streets across the countries in all major cities but not in non-urban areas. Of course, support is given in the virtual platform but real action is seen in urban areas. Thus, the effected people might be 31% of the total population. Within this 31%, the core of the campaign tags along youth which may be only 15% of the total population in urban areas (assumption). Thus, these campaigns target small chunk of the population and within them a small group will be anchored towards a change.
Apart from this, will the agitation and online campaigns bring about any change? The same Nirbhaya example gives us the answer. It has changed the way judiciary treats the cases, but has not addressed the root cause. Even today, several incidents are being reported of being sexually harassed in cabs, Citi bus, and local trains. My friend from United States, personally revealed her experience with a cab driver in Bengaluru which kept me frustrated for days.
Thus, the effect is limited. I am not saying that they are useless. They are absolutely in-disposable steps towards a change. But, it has a long way to go as the total impact by these campaigns on the country is seen for a short period of time. These campaigns even though tags only few urban youth, it brings a major change in their thinking who may pass on this information to others and this very little change will open up the arena of social change for the coming generations. It is this social platform and campaigns which brought Arab Spring to Egypt, these are the ones which bring land slide victories during elections. Lastly, these are the campaigns which allows voiceless to be a part of bigger voice which puts their cries in pubic using virtual mics so that whole of the society is heard.
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