hindustan times, march 04, 2010

Sneha Mahale■ sneha.mahale@hindustantmes.com

The last few years hasseen a dramatic shakeup in India’s virtualworld. Various socialnetworking websites likeFacebook, Twitter and

Orkut have now become majorplatforms for activism. Filled with apassion to set things right, users,especially youngsters, are using theweb to create discussion forums,petitions, organise marches andeven pledge money. Here are a fewvirtual campaigns that gainedground and impacted the real world:

thesaplingprojectHOW IT STARTED: Sitting at arestaurant one day, SatishVijaykumar (founder of the project)realised that normal citizens don'thave a cause that they can identifywith. He then thought of buying afew saplings and handing them outto people who cared for theenvironment. Friends suggestedhe go online and involve morepeople in his cause. That snowballedinto The Sapling Project.RanjeetWalunj, co-founder of the

campaign, says “We started it as acampaign to plant and sharesaplings, free of cost, to all parts of

our city and beyond.” The modelwas simple — collect funds, buyplant saplings and distribute it toanyone who would sign up on thewebsite or turn up at events. Also,while most tree plantation drivesare done in parks or forest areas,this project concentrated oncolonies and buildings in the sub-urbs that needed more trees.SPREAD THE WORD: Social media likeFacebook helped this small initiativegrow into a global project. Friendsin the blogging, Facebook andTwitter community have helpedincrease participation and contribu-tion for The Sapling Project.IMPACT: “We think that we havetriggered a small movement across

the nation, where normal individu-als can collectively help the environ-ment and society. When people areparticipating in The SaplingProject; they are actuallycommit to take care of the saplinguntil it grows into a small tree,”Walunj says.The project has managed to

distribute approximately 1000saplings in Mumbai, 200 inBangalore and 100 in Chennai. “Weare targeting 10,000 saplings inMumbai and few other thousands inother cities. Other cities like Delhi,Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Pune andLatur will be joining in the nextdistribution drive,” Walunj says.CONTACT: www.thesaplingproject.com

bridgethegap

HOW IT STARED: Sick of feeling helplessduring the 26/11 attacks, Harish Iyerdecided that he wanted to do some-thing productive and be more thanjust a mute spectator. He started ablog, and sent emails to family andfriends who advertised it onFacebook. Iyer also published hismobile number, and asked people tocall for information. “I received myfirst call 40 minutes after setting itup. Relatives of those stuck in theTaj, Trident and Oberoi began call-ing me for updates which I receivedby calling the hotel helplines.”SPREAD THE WORD: Iyer organised acrisis management workshop usingFacebook to mobilise people anddispense information.IMPACT: “Personally, I feel that onlinecampaigns don’t have a measurableor tangible effect. It does starts aninternal dialogue, which is the basicrequirement for any revolution,” saysIyer. Today, Iyer uses Facebook for avariety of social issues. He believes itwill help bridge the distance betweenonline activism and ground action.CONTACT: www.mumbaiterrorhelpline.blogspot.com

smokefreemumbaiHOW IT STARTED:The SmokefreeMumbai campaign was launchedon February 20, 2009 by theAction Council againstTobacco-India (ACT-India) along

with partners, theMunicipal Corporationof Greater Mumbai(MCGM), Tata

Memorial Hospital,Healis Sekhsaria

Institute for Public Health,Salaam Bombay Foundation,Cancer Patients Aid Association,and V-CARE, to ensure theimplementation of the nationallegislation passed on October 2,2008 for smoke-free public places.

ACT – India has also tied upwith Association of Hotels andRestaurants (AHAR). Thekey roles of the campaign

are to ensure compliance with the

law, monitorviolations andmobilise supportfrom policy mak-ers, organisationsand civil society.SPREAD THE WORD:“Social networkingsites help spread

the campaign especially amongthe youth who are very influentialand work as vehicles of change!”says Mayuri Sawant, mediaand public relations manager forthe campaign.IMPACT: “The ill effects of passivesmoking are not well known orunderstood by the generalpopulation. We want to spreadawareness about the smoke-freelaw in public places as well.”Websites like Facebook help in

gathering volunteer support forvarious activities like collegefests, Standard Charter Marathonand street plays. Future plansinclude developing a strongvolunteer base for spreadingtobacco control messages,launching discussion forumson tobacco control amongyouth and increasing the visibilityof the campaign on all networkingsites.CONTACT: www.smokefreemumbai.org

06Mumbai, Thursday, March 04, 2010

spotlight

Rise in activismhasseen the launchofseveral campaigns inthe virtualworld

freechaiHOW IT STARTED: Nitesh Jain hasbeen a volunteer with lots oflocal and international NGOssince August 2005. He realisedthat while everyone talks andattends seminars and work-shops, most just go back homeand relax at the end of the day.“People like autorickshaw driv-ers and sweepers never get achance to attend such work-shops and seminars. How theywill learn about any issue? Idecided to start the movementby offering “free chai” to peopleon the streets and get them talk-ing about issues,” he says.SPREAD THE WORD: The movementwas started on Facebook inMarch, 2009 in Ahmedabad,Mumbai and Pune. People inMumbai and Pune contactedhim via Facebook. Facebook andonline promotions have helpedthe campaign reach New York,leading to a few sessions of FreeChai in NYC.IMPACT: The campaign startedwith a ‘Save Water’ cause.“Hundreds took our movementseriously by saving water intheir houses and asking friendsto do the same. Now, after thecompletion of three months, thecampaign will launch a secondround in Mumbai around April2010,” Jain says.

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