Even in this era of fake news and misinformation, influencer and Bollywood starlet Poonam Pandey’s death stunt, albeit in the cause of raising awareness about cervical cancer, was in extremely poor taste. It showed a complete lack of sensitivity to the plight of cancer patients and their families. Pandey’s publicist announcing her death on Instagram, just a couple of days after she was seen partying in Goa, should have raised some red flags for the media which reported the news without asking any questions. Prime time news had another subject to debate on, so it was win-win for media houses. Nobody suffering from cancer dies such a sudden death. It is a painful and protracted process that leads to immense suffering for the patients and caregivers alike. Pandey’s justification that she was trying to shock the public into acting on cervical cancer did not really wash because her publicity stunt was at the behest of a pharma company. This is not the first time Pandey has performed such a stunt. Before the 2011 Cricket World Cup, she had promised to strip if India won. India did win the trophy but Pandey’s promise remained unfulfilled.
Getting back to the subject at hand, cervical cancer is the only cancer that is preventable by the timely administration of the HPV vaccine. Nirmala Sitharaman in her budget speech announced the Centre’s determination to vaccinate girls between the ages of 9 and 14 against cervical cancer at subsidised rates as the HPV vaccine is very expensive. This is a serious disease and requires to be tackled with the same gravitas. Flighty stunts cannot create awareness about cervical cancer. Only a sustained campaign highlighting the dangers of the disease will see positive outcomes in the form of adolescent girls in large numbers taking the vaccine. There has no doubt been a severe backlash to Pandey’s fake death stunt from the cine industry and civil society in general but a serious debate on the ethics of such gestures is needed. Nobody should be allowed to trivialise serious ailments.
