This ad campaign won accolades in the
international advertising circuit for its hard hitting and powerful stance.
Issued for Save Our Sisters initiative by Save the Children India NGO and
created by Mumbai's Taproot India Advertising Agency, the campaign urges us to
act before it’s too late against domestic violence.
The ads showcased bruised faces of Hindu
Goddesses, Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswati, in an attempt to spread the message,
"Pray that we never see this day. Today more than 68% of women in India
are victims of domestic violence. Tomorrow it seems like no woman shall be
spared. Not even the ones we pray too."
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| Photo credit: CNN IBN |
Domestic violence is a serious issue, not
only in India but everywhere. It is not about men exercising their physical
control or strength on women, but a serious mental problem. No person deserve
to be hit or abused in any way. Neither a woman nor a man. Getting battered,
beaten, slapped or refused of daily amenities or sexually abusing anybody, does
not fall in the decorum of any law. Reports of physical abuse, harsh behavior,
burn cases and even death of victims are all over the media every other day.
Either the man or the lover kills the woman only or gets himself killed after
committing the crime. Many women are reported to be beaten regularly due to
causes like excessive alcohol consumption, drugs, stress and mental weakness of
the men.
Many women choose to leave when the level
of abusing crosses its limit but some continue to stay back in the hope that
things might get better someday. Some also believe that going out of the abusive
relationship would invite social trauma or negative turn of events from the
people who she knows and interacts with. Abuse, whether physical, sexual or
verbal, is crime in every sense. There are many cases of economic abuse as
well. The spouse is deprived of economic resources or exploitation through
demands of resources from her family. This is what we know better in India as
the Dowry system.
The idea here is not talk about stopping
abuse but bring a change in the mindset of people. In cases of marital abuse,
not only the husband but the in laws are known to abuse the bride for reasons
that are very hard to explain logically. How difficult is it to accept that
women are equally skilled and knowledgeable to run a household? That she can be
a partner is supportive enough to make the house function smoothly? That every
decision taken by her is in favor of her family? If she is educated and earns
for herself, it is only to ease out the burden off the shoulder of the father
or the husband?
A woman does not need to exercise her
physical power to prove herself. It is her nature, her behavior, her mind and
her selflessness that makes her what she is. A daughter, a wife, a mother, a
sibling is what she is by birth, but a leader, a colleague, a friend is what
she becomes when she is accepted with respect socially. It is never late to realize
that you need a woman beside you to survive your life. Respect them and you
will earn much more respect than you probably deserve.
Salute and cheers to womanhood!
Do you know how the domestic violence data was arrived? What kind of questions were asked? How the data was tabulated. I know you don't know. Read this and understand how a false impression is created based on a gender biased definition of domestic violence -
ReplyDeletehttp://parthasadhukhan.wordpress.com/2012/12/08/how-un-created-a-wrong-picture-of-domestic-violence-in-india/
Thank you for reading my post and commenting on the same. The idea was not to highlight issues of domestic violence but to create a perspective that women should be respected more than abused.
ReplyDeleteYour blog post is clearly an eye opener. Appreciate your comments.
Thanks.