#SelfieWithDaughter: India’s social media campaign to champion females
updated the 6 October 2015 à 23:02
Fathers all over India are posting endearing selfies with their daughters for a thoughtful initiative boosted by Indian PM, Narendra Modi.
When it comes to gender equality, India is not exactly the first country to come to mind. In a country where female feticide is still fairly rampant and women’s rights are minimal, it’s safe to say that there’s a lot more the nation could do as a whole to rectify the worrisome imbalance.
Hence, as with any awareness causes these days, social media naturally takes a bold step forward here. And this time it comes in the form of Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi’s endorsement of the initiative, #SelfieWithDaughter. The campaign seeks to encourage fathers in India to take a selfie with their daughters and post the image on social media with the accompanying hashtag. It was launched to back the ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ (Save daughter, Educate daughter) campaign that aims to resolve the unequal gender ratio and improve access to education for women.
Ever since Modi made his call to take part in the initiative, the hashtag has been trending not only in India but worldwide as well as fathers in the US, Canada and Sweden have begun sharing their endearing shots with daughters.
While words and selfies can only do so much to trigger change, at least the motion has been set, the gears are running and hopefully with that some actionable programs will spring up to radically straighten out the chinks in societal issues.
For now, we’ll go by one charming selfie at a time and see where the shots take us.
Tarandip Kaur
