In a world where social media makes celebrities feel like your personal friends, the influence a popular artist can exert over culture, fashion, lifestyle and even activism has amplified greatly. Celebrity culture provides a sense of social belonging and community for individuals who relate to and engage with celebrities. People are always seeking connection and can form “parasocial relationships” with celebrities, where they feel a sense of intimacy and connection, even though the relationship is one-sided.
This allows celebrities to become a source of social capital and identity formation for their fans. In layman terms, that means they have the power to nudge their followers in ways that simply weren’t available before. Of course, this can have serious negative consequences in the wrong hands. In the right hands, however, this power and influence can go a long way in building the right mindsets, habits and behaviours that move the needle on causes as diverse as rape culture to environment conservation, animal rights to access to sanitation.
The Swachh Bharat Mission recognises this. So much so that the Sub-Group of Chief Ministers on Swachh Bharat Mission’s Behaviour Change Communication (BCC) Strategy recommends including political and social/thought leaders, celebrities and media houses to spread the
message of importance of cleanliness and sanitation. As we saw in real time, during the Swachh Bharat Mission, it became fashionable to conduct a cleanliness drive. After all, every celebrity seemed to be doing one!
Popular art and culture also played its part. Actor Akshay Kumar has leveraged his celebrity very effectively to tell important stories like “Toilet: Ek Prem Katha” and “Padman”. These movies tackled topics that were absolutely taboo in polite society and yet, they gave us a nuanced portrayal of the true nature of a woman’s plight when she doesn’t have access to a toilet, and when she can’t afford sanitary menstrual products. Our empathy was engaged, and suddenly, their plight was our plight. Their fight was our fight.
That’s a great example of how celebrity power can shape public opinion. Akshay Kumar is also the campaign ambassador for Mission Swachhta aur Paani, a joint initiative between News18 and Harpic. It is a movement that champions the cause of inclusive sanitation, equality for all genders, abilities, castes and classes and the strong belief that clean toilets are a shared responsibility.
Mission Swachhta aur Paani serves as a common platform where the right stakeholders can come together, issues of importance can be discussed, and solutions found. To that end, Mission Swachhta aur Paani has leveraged celebrity influence to add heft to its messages on several occasions. At an event marking World Health Day, actors Shilpa Shetty and Kajal Aggarwal, sportsperson Sania Mirza and Padma Shri S. Damodaran, were a part of the celebration, and helped amplify key messages.
More recently, at the event celebrating the culmination of Season 3 of Mission Swachhta aur Paani, the event hosted prominent actors like Chitrangada Singh, Soha Ali Khan and Akshay Kumar himself. They were joined by Cricketer Mithali Raj, who is ranked as one of the greatest female cricketers of all time, in addition to popular youth icons and activists Saher Bhamla and Malhar Kalambe.
As a part of various panel discussions, each of these celebrities shared their experiences. Chitrangada spoke with great empathy about the problem of girls dropping out of school because they lack safe and clean toilets, and the knock-on effects of this lack of education: an early marriage, and poor health of the family.
Mithali recounted her own experiences when travelling to play in far flung towns and cities. She used to dehydrate herself, so that she wouldn’t have to go to the toilet. She has had to go out in the open because the facilities weren’t there, or were too dirty to be used. The live audience comprised several schoolchildren, many of whom idolise Mithali. The effect of her statements was profound. Her plight became their plight. Her fight became their fight.
Soha, after recounting similar experiences, went on to speak about the incredible work that female sanitation workers are doing – particularly Self Help Groups that have come together to create businesses within the sanitation ecosystem. Malhar and Saher too, drew attention to the important work they and others are doing.
Perhaps one of the most unusual influencers at this event was Sadhvi Bhagwati, Secy Gen, Global Interfaith WASH Alliance. She has taken, perhaps, the most unique path of all to help move the needle on sanitation. “Religious leaders have always come together in the name of peace. Our definition of peace must expand. When your faith leaders explain to you that open defecation is a sin because open defecation pollutes water, which causes disease and suffering. Everyone understands the need for health, for life.”
The reaction to this philosophy has been unprecedented. “No one could believe it!” Sadhvi recounted with glee, “Gurus who talked about Moksha or heaven were also talking about ending open defecation, about removing the stigma of menstruation so our girls can have access to safe, healthy periods so they can go to school. Now we’re working with the gurukul people to help change minds of our communities, our youth towards cleanliness and sanitation. Pooja aur pradushan saath mein nahi ho sakta hai, so we get everyone to take a pledge that they will not pollute!”
Fortunately, in this era, you don’t need to be Sadhvi Bhagwati, or Mithali Raj, or Akshay Kumar to get the word out on sanitation. Each of us has a voice, and each of us has a platform. And now, thanks to Mission Swachhta aur Paani, we have access to a vast repository of information on all things sanitation.
Let’s get the message out. The Swachh Bharat Mission took care of the infrastructure, now it’s our turn to change our behaviour. You don’t have to become an activist to contribute. Small actions add up too. Join us here, to learn how you can use your voice to advance the cause of a Swasth and Swachh Bharat.