Social change- illusion Vs reality

“To successfully create illusion

The first thing you need is trust.

But to perfect an illusion, the false reality must

appear as authentic as the one it hides.

Careful attention must

be paid in detail.

The slightest of imperfections

can, like a pin to a balloon,

burst the illusion.

And the truth behind the

illusion becomes revealed.”  

I sat in the auditorium disgusted, disappointed and disillusioned listening to a survey and its analysis conducted by bunch of interns under a renowned social organization on child sexual abuse. It was not the results of the study that pained me, but it was the immaturity with which the issue of child sexual abuse being handled that disgusted me; I failed to understand how can anyone trivialize the issue by giggling around, giving lame answers and feeling privileged when someone shared their trauma of child sexual abuse with them? There was so much synchronicity in the sharing around the survey and the organization for which these people (interns and employees) were working as both just talked about organization, people and the years that they have completed, leaving behind the issue for which they intent to work! I see no point why I should celebrate a man/boy if he is working for gender issues. Do we celebrate women doing the same or do we point fingers at them or more conveniently they are taken for granted? And this pissed me when the crowd clapped for the only boy intern among the many girls, and yes he enjoyed the attention too.

“Did you involve any slum community or any specific community in your survey?”

“No”, was the blunt answer for a very crucial question. This made me wonder about the entire purpose of the study as for me it seemed that the study was oriented for the privileged class, forgetting how the intersection of class, caste and religion have impact on gender issues. Also i heard someone share, "When i started the work around the issue, i was told that i will play a role in breaking the families, but now i stand here after healing many people." Don't know why people working on gender boost about this saying as they end up creating structures again.  There was no relevance, need and practical implications of this study as visible from their presentation. Whatever little experience I have in the social space I have heard a lot about abstract ideas of life such as love, empathy, compassion and peace but unfortunately with every step I take forward, I didn’t receive the same from the people who say it loud and clear. I could see myself getting angry and at the same time getting amazed at their perspective on the entire issue, damn it’s unbelievable that they have working like this for so many years without reflecting!

So with a heavy heart, I decided to walk out of the event with the learning “all that glitters is not gold” and determination that i have a long journey to undertake to make my dream of social change come true.