The Pink Chaddi Campaign

Project Name: The Pink Chaddi Campaign

Initiated by: Alternative Law Forum (ALF)

The Pink Chaddi (or Pink Underwear Campaign) is the first kind of online nonviolent protest movement that started through social networking campaigning in 2009. The movement launched in India in response to notable incidences of violent conservative and rightwing activism against perceived violations of Indian culture, when a group of women were attacked in a pub in Mangalore.

To protest against this attack, Bangalore-based Alternative Law Forum (ALF) has launched a satirical campaign to support India’s “Pubgoing Loose and Forward Women”. A group of young women formed the Consortium of pub-going, loose and forward women. The group uses both traditional and online tactics to voice their discontent. Firstly, the group created a Facebook group and within a week, the group had grown to over 40,000 members. The group and the fan page for the campaign provided a forum for active discussion and debate about the issues involved. The campaign has been thoroughly dissected and analysed, celebrated and reviled, criticized and praised all over cyberspace.

Group members also invited all members to take part offline by sending pink underwear to other members in order protest against violations. In order to main the privacy of group members, the blog owners removed all offensive photos. At last count, there are nearly 59,000 supporters – men and women – on just the campaign’s Facebook group. Facebook was not the only medium used, though cyber-activism made it easier to bring people with one voice together in one place.

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