{"id":8876,"date":"2010-10-14T16:35:31","date_gmt":"2010-10-14T16:35:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tat.reddaisytrading.co.uk\/index.php\/2010\/10\/14\/millions-back-ban-the-r-word-campaign\/"},"modified":"2010-10-14T16:35:31","modified_gmt":"2010-10-14T16:35:31","slug":"millions-back-ban-the-r-word-campaign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/2010\/10\/14\/millions-back-ban-the-r-word-campaign\/","title":{"rendered":"Millions back \u2018Ban the R-word\u2019 campaign"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"content\">\n<h3>Bollywood star Akshay Kumar launches campaign to ban the word \u2018retard\u2019<\/h3>\n<div><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" hspace=\"10\" vspace=\"3\" align=\"right\" width=\"180\" height=\"283\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/Image\/ArticleImages\/AkshayKumarcampaign_180x232.jpg\"\/>MILLIONS of people have backed a campaign to ban the word \u2018retard\u2019.<\/strong><\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>The campaign was started by Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar following comments by American actress Jennifer Aniston in August where she refereed to herself as a \u2018retard\u2019 on chat show Live with Regis and Kelly.<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>Speaking at the time, Akshay said: \u201cThe recent incident involving Jennifer Aniston using the R word on live TV was, of course, blown out of proportion, but it just shows how unaware we are and how frivolously we use this word. One could never understand how much it hurts \u2014 it demeans people who strive harder in life than we could ever imagine.\u201d <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>Now his campaign, \u2018Ban the R-Word\u2019 has received over nine million signatures just weeks into its launch.<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>Kumar says he wants to ensure that mentally and physically challenged individuals are recognised as equal members of society.<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>Fellow members of the Indian film fraternity, including Amitabh Bachchan and Salman Khan, have already shown their support to for the initiative. <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>\u201cThe campaign is not about being politically correct; it is about being sensitive,\u201d Kumar said. <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>The \u2018Ban the R Word\u2019 signature campaign will culminate with a major event entitled \u2018Be a Fan of Dignity&#8217;, taking place in Bangalore. <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>The show will see Akshay modelling outfits by local designer, Ramesh Dembla, on the runway. <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>The humanitarian actor will also award those people who have achieved new records for the campaign. So far, the highest amount of signatures \u2013 98,000 \u2013 comes from a school in India. <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>After the event, all the signatures received will be handed to both the National Parliament and the Social Justice Department in Delhi, in a bid to ban the \u2018R-Word\u2019 from all languages spoken in India.<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>\u00a0<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div><strong>To join Akshay Kumar in the campaign to ban the &#8216;R&#8217; Word, visit <\/strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.rwordindia.org\"><strong>www.rwordindia.org<\/strong><\/a> <\/div>\n<p>&#13;\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bollywood star Akshay Kumar launches campaign to ban the word \u2018retard\u2019 MILLIONS of people have backed a campaign to ban the word \u2018retard\u2019. &#13; The campaign was started by Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar following comments by American actress Jennifer Aniston in August where she refereed to herself as a \u2018retard\u2019 on chat show Live with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}