Monday, August 25, 2014

Ice Bucket Challenge in India - is nothing but Useless


Ice Bucket Challenge has been going viral across all social media networks. Our newspapers publishing the news of Indian celebrities taking up the challenge every minute, as if they don’t have any other headline in the country.

Ok, before I scream further let me summarize what this “Ice Bucket Challenge” is. (…for the benefit of illiterates , like me >:D<  . I had no idea about it till today morning!. )

It's a simple task of pouring a bucket of ice water on self or donate $100 to ALS Association. And while you are doing it, you need to create a video, post it on social network and tag a few friends (six to be accurate) challenging them to complete the same task. Those who fail to respond within 24 hours, have to donate $100 to the ALS association and declare it on the network.

ALS stands for Amyotrophic Lateral Scelorsis - a neuro degenerative disorder - also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. This is a deadly disease that is fast claiming the lives of people with no known to cure.

I agree that the ice bucket challenge is a "cool" thing and an innovative way to promote a good cause. Celebrities in the US and other western counties do because about 30,000 Americans are living with this killer disease. They do it to create awareness about the disease and in turn to build a corpus for the charity. But, does it have any relevance in Indian context?

Aren’t our Indian celebrities just copy the west without any thinking? Do you think that they really care about ALS? Instead they do it just for fun and for some cheap publicity :-( .When Modi asked help to setup toilets in every home in rural India., did any of them came front?

Instead of campaigning for a unreported (not even a  single case in India so far) disease, why can’t we make meaningful contribution to other killing diseases which are being reported in millions in India every year. More than 30% of the total tuberculosis patients of the world, are living in India L. Still hearing a lot of bitter incidents on Dengue, Cancer and Infant mortality !

If all these celebrities create awareness and donate money as much to the research into TB, Dengue, and Cancer which are immediate problems., just think of the difference we could make!!!. Why only celebrities, we all can join the cause…  think of all the 1.2 billion people of us.

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3 Comments to "Ice Bucket Challenge in India - is nothing but Useless"

Kuku Koku said...

There's no doubt that it's for mere publicity

Narendra Babu said...

This is a typical example of how we ape the west just for the sake of it if these celebrities are seriously concerned about social issues maybe they can organize a campaign for the rape victims or girl child instead doing some thing about other important issues in india they just ape the west for some cheap publicity

Sourabh said...

am surprised how you could write this topic so politely, and still convey your anger. I would have used all dirty words a dozen at least. These so called celebrities are stupids !