Sheetal Parikh joined Vallabh Youth Organization.
AB Wire
‘Gau Raksha’ (cow protectionism) has been a controversial subject in India for a few years as the cow protection groups in many parts of the country took the law into their hands on the pretext of protecting the cow which is considered to be a holy animal by the Hindu community.
While the cow protection groups are being criticized for being too aggressive, an Indian woman, who was working in the US, has shifted to India to protect the cows.
According to a report in The Times of India, Sheetal Parikh, an Ohio-settled woman has moved to Vadodara in Gujarat to work for cow protection.
“From childhood, I had read about cows and how important they are in our culture. My father, an Ayurvedic doctor, too told me about benefits of cow. When I grew up I decided to do something for the bovine that, though, revered in India is neglected in urban areas,” Parikh told The Times of India.
A volunteer of Vallabh Youth Organization (VYO) working for the protection of aged cows abandoned by the owners, Parikh started visiting India last year as part of the ‘gau raksha’ activities. She decided to move to Vadodara after realizing that she cannot volunteer the activities from the US.
“We buy aged cows as farmers sell them off once they stop giving milk. Usually, such cows land in slaughterhouses and our aim is to save such cows. The cows are kept in a ‘gaushala’ (cowshed) and given proper food and medicines till they live,” she said.
The organization has saved 60 cows and is looking for adopting 600 more to protect in their cowsheds. As per its rule, a donor has to adopt a cow and bear all its expenses until it lives.
“Coming to India and working for saving this sacred animal has been a very fulfilling experience,” she said.
Though many of the cow protection groups are affiliated to the RSS, the parent organization of the ruling BJP, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has recently lashed out at the groups terming them anti-social.
“In recent days we have seen there are people who have opened shops in the name of ‘gau raksha’… I feel so angry at times. Some people who are engaged in anti-social activities for the whole night wear the mask of ‘gau rakshaks’ in the day. I say some people do it in order to deflect attention from their ills; they don the mantle of ‘gau rakshaks’ and masquerade as cow protectors,” Modi said at a town hall meeting on Sunday.
“I will ask state governments to prepare dossiers on such people, as 70-80 percent of them will be found to be involved in anti-social activities which no society approves of,” Modi added.
Being a cow protection activist, Sheetal Parikh also supports Modi’s views. “He is right. Why those doing genuine work should be worried about his statement,” she was quoted as saying by The Times.