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Journalism of Courage
In the lanes of Kolkata’s busy Southern Avenue, a mural of a girl was sexualised. The mural, part of Missing Art project, where members paint black silhouettes of a young girl on public walls to highlight the menace of child trafficking for sex trade in the country, was vandalised. Belittling the mural, breasts and genitalia were drawn with chalk. Anguished by the shameful act, Facebook user Aritra Paul shared the photo online. The photo created a stir on social media and netizens felt disgusted about the despicable mindset of those tarnishing such a serious work of art.
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Sharing the photo on the social media, Paul wrote, “If we can’t save a stencil from being sexualised, we can’t save anyone!” Lashing out at the heinous act, she added, “Look at it, look at it carefully, this is what we have reduced women to – Two breasts and a vagina!”
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She further questioned how can anyone think “it is fun to draw hole and breasts on a stencil.”
Her post created a outrage on the social media platform highlighting the “sick” and “lustful” mentality of people, with many disheartened to see that a symbol of spreading awareness can be ridiculed in such a manner.
In her FB post, Paul said she would erase the chalk marks and also gave her reasons why she decided to share it online. “And yes, I will spread this image with hashtags, to tell the world what an annoying species we are!” her post read. Keeping her words, she shared another photo showing the chalk marks were removed.
The Missing Public Art Project was initiated to highlight how girls are forced into sexual slavery at an early age. The project, which started in late 2014, aimed to spark conversations on sex trafficking and has since spread to many metro cities, including Delhi, Chennai, Bengaluru, Kolkata among others.
