The Consortium of Pub-Going, Loose & Forward Women

There’s a high probability that you heard about the ‘Pink Chaddi Campaign’ back in 2009. With the kind of media attention and stir it caused among women of all ages in cities both big and small across the country, it was hard to miss. In a nutshell, it was a non-violent protest in retaliation to an act of moral policing that took place against a group of women at a Mangalore pub and to a threat issued by a Hindu orthodox right wing group.

The Consortium of Pub-Going, Loose and Forward Women, a group founded by Nisha Susan was started and she along with a couple of other young women launched the Pink Chaddi Campaign.  They solicited women from all over the country to send in a pair of pink chaddis which would be delivered to the office of the head of the right wing party. On Valentine’s Day, as promised, 500 pairs of pink undergarments were couriered by Susan and her group. News reports state that many more couriers were also sent directly to the party office by volunteers, groups and individual women from across India.

At its peak the group had over 30,000 members on Facebook (the account was subsequently hacked and vandalized.) The campaign got covered by every leading news channel, daily and was even picked up by the international press. It was blogged about, spoken about and debated on by women and men across age groups and social strata’s.  Nisha Susan had stirred the people.

This is the power that one woman exercised. She rallied the college girls, the house wives and even some upstanding men to come together in protest against an injustice. She had the attention of a nation and a critical mass behind her. She caused a change and she is just one individual woman, imagine what the 49% can accomplish.