Young Indians Fight Corruption on the Internet
Fighting corruption in India has a new medium: indiaagainstcorruption.org. Fed up with news of malpractices, some young, net-saavy individuals in Mumbai joined an online protest raising concerns about the ever-increasing cases of corruption.
Weve all heard headlines about how social media is empowering citizens from the Middle East to China. India Against Corruption is another great example of how technology can facilitate activism and empower regular citizens.
The main objective of the movement was to start protests across the city regarding various issues that people are facing. For example, they supported a 15-day long event called Dandi March II, inspired by Mahatma Gandhis Salt Satyagraha (Dandi March), one of the milestones in the history of Indian freedom struggle.
Gaining momentum on Facebook, Twitter
With an active Facebook page comprising of over 60,000 fans and a Twitter profile with more than 3300 followers, the India Against Corruption movement has already been already a big success. The website has 20,000 members in Mumbai alone.
Currently India Against Corruption is running a protest campaign where they want to bring the Jan Lokpal bill into action. They have already garnered support from over 570,000 people in India and is still going strong. An event page has been created on Facebook to take the protest to a broader audience and gain their support. It already has more than 10,500 people attending the event.
The idea behind this protest is that activist Anna Hazare, by serving an ultimatum to the PM to sit on indefinite fast from April 5, is demanding anti-corruption law and thus getting the Jan Lokpal bill in action.