New Delhi. January 28, 2021: After featuring in a powerful video promoting an important messaging on the importance of a woman’s consent, popular television actor Nakuul Mehta was seen in a Instagram Live session his support to #AllyUpForHer, a campaign jointly run by child rights NGO Save the Children and Yuvaa on Change.org. Nakuul is often seen associating himself with similar social causes around safety and dignity of girls and women.
Supporting the petition, Nakuul is seen encouraging men not to be silent spectators to violations of women safety and be an ally in this demand for safety. He says, “Standing up for respect and safety of women is something that must come naturally to any man. For years, we have been speaking about treating women as equals, but unfortunately the balance has been tilted for far too long and the struggle to stand up for fundamental rights such as safety has been a single-handed battle fought only by women. It is time that we as men are at the forefront of this conversation and shoulder this responsibility to ensure that women don't feel insecure in the presence or absence of a man. As men we need to give a fillip to this movement and lead by example.”
Nikhil Taneja, Co-Founder and CEO of Yuvaa added, “Ally ship comes out of compassion and this ally ship is about listening to and understanding women. If women feel consent is a concept that is poorly understood by men, then it is our responsibility to ensure that behaviour change happens within us.
“When we speak about safe spaces, it cannot be made safe if we don’t talk about the role of everyone. That’s why men need to see that their participation and ally ship is extremely important. It is time, men must stop being mute spectators when women are being abused and assaulted - be it online or offline as this only slows down our fight for justice. It is a reality that our behaviours are ultimately influenced by the popular culture and content we consume. . And when we speak of men’s ally ship, the role of influencers and public figure plays a huge role in modeling public behavior and action,” added Pragya Vats, Head of Campaigns, Save the Children.
The petition also saw support from Mr. Badrinath Singh (Nirbhaya’s father) earlier who said a permanent change will only come when the collective mindset changes. Men must stop being mute spectators while women face abuse online and on the ground.
Recently, on National Day of the Girl (24th Jan) the partner organisations, in collaboration with a range of other cohorts who joined in this initiative, released a video ‘Tum Akeli Nahi’ featuring male content creators in a spoken word video.
The petition urges popular OTT (over-the-top) platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hotstar etc. to create content that promotes and encourages ally ship and bystander intervention. It aims to catalyse change in mindset and mass media on representation of men and boys, and strives to engage men to partake in voice and action as equal stakeholders. The petition has garnered about 90K signatures so far.
#AllyUpForHer is urging your support in ensuring no girl anywhere must live in fear or pay with her life. Sign the petition to support the cause and help us spread the message of ally ship and make this campaign a sweeping success.
So, are you ready to #AllyUpForHer?
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