Fact Check: Viral video of young girls marching with sticks shared with misleading claim about impact of ‘The Kerala Story’
A video of girl students clad in white salwar kameez dresses with saffron dupattas marching in the streets is shared with a narrative that this is the change seen after the release of the movie ‘The Kerala Story’.
A video of girl students clad in white salwar kameez dresses with saffron dupattas marching in the streets is shared with a narrative that this is the change seen after the release of the movie ‘The Kerala Story’. The video also shows girls riding bikes and hundreds of women volunteers marching holding sticks on the street.
The caption shared along with the video goes as “This is a change after The Kerala Story Film. In Mavillikara City (Kerala) *Shaurya Yatra* yesterday with thousands of women activists Conducted by Pathasanchalan *Kerala Durga Vahini Section*…”
The claim is being shared hundreds of times on several social media platforms conveying that this is the result of the awakening brought by the movie ‘The Kerala Story’.
Fact Check:
The claim is misleading. Though the video is from Kerala of a parade conducted by the Durga Vahini section, it is not due to the impact of the movie ‘The Kerala Story’ but a regular event held every year.
When we searched using the keywords Durga Vahini Kerala, we found several such videos of the parades conducted by the Durga Vahini wing of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad in Kerala.
Durga Vahini is an organization of Hindu women committed to the protection of Dharma and culture. It was instituted in 1984 and regularly provides training to young women in activities like Kar Seva, Satyagraha, etc.
According to their website, Durga Vahini is a dynamic voluntary organization of Hindu Yuwatis. The centre of strength or energy of any nation is its youth force. It is youth power alone that can lead a society or a nation in the path of prosperity.
According to news reports, police registered a case against more than 200 activists of Durga Vahini on charges of taking out a march that included weapons at Keezharoor in Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram district.
According to onmanorama.com, the videos and pictures of the march had gone viral on social media. Young women in white and orange dupattas were seen marching with long sticks on their shoulders. In some pictures, the girls were seen carrying swords. A complaint was filed against the march by the Popular Front of India (PFI).
A tweet posted in October 2015 also shows the march of young girl activists of Durga Vahini with the same attire and long sticks in their hands.
Several images can also be seen on the stock image websites like Getty Images also.
Hence, the claim that the parade of the girls is a result of the awakening caused by the movie ‘The Kerala Story’ is misleading. The parade was conducted by the Durga Vahini unit of Vishwa Hindu Parishad which has been actively conducting such parades over the years.