December 1 is World AIDS Day – a day dedicated to create awareness around the deadly disease, its spread and also express remorse for those who lost their lives to it. There was a time when celebs used to participate in campaigns related to AIDS. Even today many celebs speak up and try to create awareness among people about the disease.
On this day, here’s talking to celebs about whether or not their association in creating awareness in such a cause helps to make a difference. They also share about the importance of the day.
Nirisha Basnett
I think any human being can bring a change in their surroundings, be it a celeb or a normal being. Our goal should be to make people aware about such diseases and their precautions. If a human being doesn’t influence its surroundings in a positive way then what’s his/her value of life? And even if it doesn’t make any difference, one has to play the part. Celebrities should definitely try using any platform, mostly social media in today’s time to educate people and help those in need among many other things because there are just too many who look up to them as role models. I couldn’t imagine a world prospering and developing without humans helping each other. One should always do what’s needed to do as a human and not as a celebrity PR stunt.
Priya Paramita Paul
I believe it is the basic responsibility of celebrities to support any type of social cause. It can be anything including AIDS. AIDS used to be the main campaign a few years back. Earlier we used to get more information about AIDS. I see there is an abrupt reduction in such kinds of campaigns. I think there are very few celebrities promoting it. To educate the people in the country about social causes we should come forward. There are many people who look for an opportunity to speak up. In this era the informational platforms are vast and everywhere information can be given and empowered. People really look out for what you believe and what you don't and adapt that.
Shaan Mishra
When celebrities do campaigns about awareness, it gets noticed as they can spread the word to a large group of people and therefore it does make a difference. People consider celebrities as their idols whether they are in sports or cinemas so they follow what they do. If through celebrities such awareness is created then our society will always prosper. Earlier there used to be rally’s but today we have social media through which we can spread awareness and teach good things to people on a larger scale.
Hiten Paintal
I agree that before there were many celebrities who used to do a lot back then. Major problem with our country was awareness. The messages were not reaching out to people. Now hopefully and thankfully it has become better. I think this is the right time because social media has reached everywhere, around the globe. If any celebrity wants to promote, educate the people and talk about world AIDS day, this is the right time to do it. I think it's a great thing. People should do as much as they can and promote AIDS day as much as they can.
Charrul Malik
People takes inspiration from campaigns done by celebrities. Earlier, AIDS awareness campaigns used to happen but now I don't hear much about it. Social media is a great platform for actors. Sometimes actors should be volunteers. I'm talking about all the big shots, be it from TV or sports. People should start thinking on that note and run campaigns. Personally I don't see many campaigns these days. People can even start the work from their social media by tagging people and asking them to promote it forward. People should start working on it without any expectations or monetary gain. It is going to help our country.
AIDS has been one of the biggest curses on human life. There used to be a lot of awareness created by people which is not that much now. It has taken a back seat but yea if celebrities create awareness it does make a lot of difference because celebrities can influence people and guide them through social media and other mediums. It’s a responsibility on the celebrities to keep doing their bit for the society and keep giving out information about such things from which people can get some help and information
Anjali Phougat
The taboo associated with AIDS needs to be eradicated and awareness about the disease needs to be spread. I definitely feel that celebrities and influential personalities with good engagement on social media, supporting such campaigns make a huge difference in the community. It breaks the taboo and stigma for people to openly talk about such issues. Celebrities can support the campaign through so many mediums. Social media is great tool where they have massive following reach. They could go to events, come through their YouTube channels. They can do live sessions on Instagram and Facebook to spread the awareness. Anytime they get the chance to contribute they should do it. It is such a major issue in the society and some people feel that it's a taboo to talk about issues like AIDS. I feel they should use any possible channel to spread awareness and support and also create fundraisers through their channels
Jason Tham
Celebrity campaigns are definitely a good thing and do make a difference as a majority of the population follow their favourite celebrities. Even if 50% of the population gets aware of the illness and works on preventing it, I think we are already winning the battle. In this generation, we are fortunate enough to have multiple platforms to educate and create awareness. We have concerts, social media, YouTube etc. Cinema too is evolving and so is our audience. We have films that cover all these subjects that were once considered taboo. I have seen even schools and colleges incorporating free condoms and including essential lessons in their syllabus. So I feel good efforts are being made for awareness.
I myself have supported the cause and tried to spread awareness. It does make a difference because people follow celebrities and when a particle actor speaks about the cause people do take out time and hear their opinions. In that process if somebody can spread some good knowledge then it’s really helpful. Various ways can help to spread awareness like putting it out on social media, talking about it when we give interviews or generally spreading the word of what AIDS is and how to be aware and away from it. Now that we have a voice and people listen so it’s very important to spread the word when you have knowledge
Ankur Nayyar
You need to be popular so that people listen to you. There was a time when AIDS needed the attention of the world and the people, so all the celebrities came out to support the campaign on how to control the spread of AIDS. Now I think AIDS is taken care of and it’s time to move on.
