‘Death invokes fear, not awareness!’

A colleague in the midday newsroom put it correctly when she said that if starlet Poonam Pandey had simply announced that she has opted to take the human papillomavirus vaccine it wouldrsquove been a more effective way to raise awareness around cervical cancer which killed close to 78000 Indian women in 2020Instead the modelactress chose to pull off a death stunt On Saturday morning social media was crackling with outrage as netizens expressed shock disbelief and disgust at being ldquobetrayedrdquoOn Friday an Instagram post by her publicity team announcing her death due to cervical cancer led to speculation and gossip amid earnest outpouring of grief on social media With no information about where she was being treated or passed away or the announcement of a funeral people were puzzled about her sudden and mysterious death later also confirmed by her sister By Friday evening the sister and family were incommunicado even as television stations tried to pin the location of a possible funeral in her hometown of KanpurAlka Bisen Shardul Pandit and Viji Venkatesh cancer care advocate and activistExpectedly on Saturday morning Pandey posted a video stating that she is in fact alive In the video created in association with media company Hauterrfly Pandey said ldquoI feel compelled to share something significant with you allmdashI am here alive Cervical cancer didnrsquot claim me but tragically it has claimed the lives of thousands of women who stemmed from a lack of knowledge on how to tackle this diseaserdquoIn a followup video the actress apologised for having hurt public sentiment but expressed no regret because awareness for cervical cancer ldquoneeded that spotlightrdquo ldquoThe sheer lack of awareness surrounding this issue was the mere reason that compelled me to take this unconventional steprdquo she said remarking that the HPV vaccine was highlighted in Fridayrsquos Union Budget but only a fraction of Indians may have taken noteNo one was convinced thoughThose who had offered heartfelt condolencesmdashincluding top Bollywood celebritiesmdashonly 24 hours ago were now frothing at the mouth at having falling for a gimmick ldquoFking cheap publicity stunt You guys think itrsquos funny You and your PR team should be boycotted I swear Bloody losersrdquo wrote television star Aly GoniShardul Pandit who claims to be a friend of Pandeyrsquos was upset that she had played with his emotions ldquoI feel stupid today When I got a call about her demise I rang up common friends because her number wasnrsquot available If I were in Mumbai I would have gone to her houserdquo he told midday Pandit had in fact defended her even as people responded to his Instagram story with vile comments ldquoThen I saw Poonamrsquos post on Saturday morning and I was shocked Some people probably knew that it was a campaign for cervical cancer but her close friends fans and the media werenrsquot aware Cancer is personal to me I lost my mother to cancer and it triggered helplessness in me Whoever thought that this idea would make for a brilliant campaign is a foolrdquo said Pandit who spoke to this writer while on a shoot in DubaiFork Media Group Hauterrflyrsquos parent company claimed the decision was taken with the right intent midday spoke to Jasleen Gupta business head Xtra Fork Media Group who claimed there was no personal gain and the idea was not backed by any brand and no money was exchangedldquoThis campaign plan happened four months ago We knew there would be backlash We knew people would hate her but the number of people talking about cervical cancer has gone up I am seeing a lot of articles and news publications covering it which is what we wanted The website PoonamPandeyIsAlive has a lot of information on cervical cancerrdquo Gupta said adding that their hearts were in ldquothe right placerdquoldquoPeople are saying that it was the wrong path to have taken Obviously we were not trying to hurt people A lot of people donrsquot know this but Poonamrsquos own mother suffered from cancer so she is not heartless In fact that was one of the reasons she agreedrdquo Gupta said adding that the company consulted doctors andcancer survivors Those who have dedicated their lives to raising awareness around cancer believe the campaign trivialised the struggle of survivors and their families Viji Venkatesh cancer care advocate activist and regional head of the Max Foundation in South Asia said the campaignrsquos target audience was off ldquoFirst of all how many people know this person Pandey Who is the audience for this lsquocampaignrsquo And did this really cause lsquoawarenessrsquomdashabout the disease its risk factors prevalence Incidence Prevention No The announcement someone brought it to my attention seemed very improbable to me and while I may have felt bad about the demise of a young person I am afraid it did not ring true at all It was done in very poor taste and with great insensitivity I do not think that the end justifies the meansrdquoAnita Verma was diagnosed with cervical cancer and survived the 1B stage ldquoDeath isnrsquot a joke If she wanted to promote World Cancer Day which is on February 4 and alert the public about it thatrsquos all right But to use death for promotion is wrong Death scares peoplerdquoA Lancet study released in December 2022 announced that India had the highest number of cervical cancer cases in Asia and of 40 per cent of total deaths from the disease 23 per cent occurred in IndiaCaused by certain carcinogenic strains of the human papillomavirus which is sexually transmitted cervical cancer spirals due to ignoring symptoms and poor awareness especially in backward regions of the country where sexual hygiene isnrsquot a priority and women have scant access to screening and reproductive healthcare servicesAlka Bisen CEO Cancer Patients Aid Association CPAA said the campaign strategy was off the mark The nonprofit lead a campaign to fight the spiralling rise of infections They have been doing HPV screening for over three decades but recently they also began screening healthy individuals in vulnerable groups like sex workers rag pickers and manual labourers She said awareness is best created by NGOs general practitioners and gynaecologists ldquoIt could also be part of the school curriculum from Class 8 to 10 to make kids aware that yoursquore going to be out there in the world and this is something that you can safeguard yourself from Itrsquos like what we do for tobaccordquo she saidCelebs respond to Pandeyrsquos campaignEkta Kapoor The company that encouraged such an insensitive campaign should be suedPooja Bhatt I never delete tweets but I did so in the case where I expressed my shock at news of Poonam Pandeyrsquos demise due to cervical cancer Why It turns out the news was engineered by a digitalPR team Absolute disgrace and disservice to those battling the samemdashher included