1. Holi Is Not A Consent-Free-Day:
Rules Of Not Touching A Woman
Without Consent Remain
Unchanged
By Sadho

2. The day of togetherness
• Holi, as we all know, celebrates the beginning of the new
season, spring.
• Holi, as I remember back in my village, used to be the festival
of vibrant joys, communal harmony (Hindu and Muslim
community along with small group of Christian and some
other religious/cultural communities often came together on
this day) and a celebration of a culture that teaches us to
forgive and love even our enemies.
• I remember my father, who being what he was – the
strongman of JMM, had many foes, but during the time of
Holi they would all forget everything and come together to
celebrate it.

3. The lost meaning?
• But over the period of time, as I grew up, moved out (because
my mother wanted to me study in an English medium school)
of my village back in Bihar (now Jharkhand), I realize that
there’s no such sensibility attached to it anymore.
• All it has become is another form of hooliganism, vandalism
and an excuse to hit and hurt people by throwing eggs, water
balloons, rotten tomatoes, etc. on them.
• The sense of Holi – that sheer experience of being able to
spread joy through vibrant colours, is lost now.
• So is the very passion of colour that once upon a time
brought people from different communities together (I am a
witness to this rare phenomenon which is rarer in our society
today).

4. Consent needed?
• And as I am talking about Holi, I also need to bring in the idea
of consent that this festival actually and completely
obliterates.
• You see, the way we play Holi or the way it’s celebrated in our
society these days, the issue of touching a woman/girl
without her consent, holds no merit to it.
• It absolutely disagrees with the whole notion of consent.
• I have seen it, and shockingly experienced it too (what, you
think a man/boy who doesn’t want to be soaked in the
colours of Holi, would appreciate it?)

5. Forever wrong
• A few days ago, while having a discussion on the same, my
friend Wrisha had commented that – “Be it in religion or
cultural practices, what is morally and ethically wrong shall
forever remain wrong.”
• And I believe that touching, fondling, and even applying the
colour of Holi on a woman/girl without her consent is wrong.
No matter what!

6. Only and current solution
• So to the girls out there (some of who are my friends, some
something else), this is for you:
• Resist.
Oppose.
Stand.
Fight.
…because that’s the only (and current) solution to the horrible
state of you all in our society and your dismal plight.

7. • Read more on Youth Ki Awaaz at http://bit.ly/10a44uA