Most of India has time and again been a part of Mannequin Challenge. When a woman is getting molested, you turn into a mannequin, a crime? Become a mannequin, an atrocity? Become a mannequin. And if you do not understand the reference, then stop being a mannequin and take some action. Stand up when you witness a crime, speak up when you hear someone catcalling, take action when a woman is being harassed, stop being the mannequin.
The proof of our expertise in this challenge is the Bengaluru mass molestation case. We are experts in maintaining silence at the most inopportune moments. Witnessing such harassment and not taking action shows how unconcerned we are about the thing that does not have an immediate effect on us.
Is it apathy or is it the lack of courage to face the atrocity? The feeling of ‘If it doesn’t effect us now, it doesn’t concern us’? How can one ignore a hand that is publicly groping another woman, a hand that is slipping into the blouse, a hand that hurts the modesty of a woman? It is time these barriers should be broken. Because, India needs to wake up now and save its women- a mother, a daughter, a sister, from being publicly ashamed or worse killed.
After the mass molestation, a video by a group of youngsters, created by AutumnWorldwide, described what is it that the Country needs. We need to unfreeze and understand that being frozen is not going to help anybody. As the video states, in the end, all we can say is #Don’tBeAManequinn.
