Karunashram, located in Wardha (Maharashtra), is a unit of People for Animals. It is a shelter to house animals that require love and care, just as we humans need love and care. The shelter developed as an initiative of Mr. Ashish Goswami, the Secretary of People for Animals in Wardha. Started with the intention of protecting the basic rights of animals that are ill-treated, injured or abandoned. People for Animals (or PFA in short) and Karunashram has grown over the years, and does other activities besides providing care for animals that are injured or abandoned.
Focus is also directed towards animal and environment welfare. Animals are an integral part of our environment and our ecological balance and the sooner we appreciate the importance of this, the better we shall be as members of the human race. PFA actively supports the rights of animals through a new breed of Indians who believe in the right of all creatures big and small. A new breed that is willing to fight for those rights through legislation, namely, the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act of 1960.
India is a paradoxical nation. On the one hand, we claim we have arrived globally and on the other, we have beggars and animals on our streets. Anyone who comes to India for the first time will tell you that they carry back memories of poverty, filth and beggary. Shanghai? Not by a long shot!
The members of Karunashram endorse Mahatma Gandhi’s belief that a nation’s progress is judged by its attitude towards other living beings, namely fellow mankind, animals and plants. Steeped in religious beliefs and superstitions, India still has a long way to go. .Environmental education is a subject in our university curriculum and yet we have a dying environment.Why? Because we isolate what we study from what we do and we rarely do what we are taught. The concept of Ahimsa has today become the butt of a joke.Karunashram minces no words in telling the people of India and the World that Ahimsa is a comprehensive principle. The very fact of our living –eating, drinking and moving about-necessarily involves some Himsa, destruction of life, be it ever so minute. A votary of Ahimsa therefore remains true to his faith if the spring of all is actions is compassion, if he shuns to the best of his ability the destruction of the tiniest creature ,tries to save it and thus incessantly strives to be free from Himsa. Mahatma Gandhi never believed Ahimsa to be an ideal but a value. Himsa is a part of the human condition. But must we celebrate or surrender before that condition or ought we to try and transcend it? Haven’t we always been taught by our elders and teachers in school to have self restraint and compassion? And yet today we, as a Nation have become callous and discompassionate.
We pride ourselves as an educated Nation that has made its mark in the field of Information Technology and conveniently discount the impact technology has had in destroying the environment. Not to mention, thousands of jobless people who have been replaced by machines. Can we truly call ourselves educated? Literate -Yes but educated-No! Education should be holistic. We can only call ourselves educated when we use our skills and machines to improve our environment. The spate of farmer suicides highlights India’s paradoxical nature in that we call ourselves an Agricultural Nation. What is worth mentioning though, is the efforts on the part of a few good citizens to try and help the farmers out of their debts. True economic freedom and growth can never be achieved when you have two diametrically opposite sections in the society-The Rich and The Poor. In a Nation where poverty glares you in the face, it is meaningless to say that we have attained an enviable GDP of 8%.We do not undermine the efforts of the Government ,just that we feel enough is not being done. Individual efforts need to be made.Today, although various organizations have started work towards bettering the environment, a lot remains to be done because it is not enough. We must all take responsibility rather than depending on others to do the job.
Karunashram urges people to join the movement that it has started. More and more people need to wake up and feel responsible towards their environment which includes both man and animal. Although most of us willingly help fellow human beings, we ignore the plight of animals. Animals have a heart, just as we do and they too feel pain .Spare a thought for them! It is our solemn duty to sensitize people around us to the rights of animals to co-exist with us. YOU have the right! Don’t just look away when you see an animal being ill-treated. Remember, tomorrow it could be you. Wouldn’t you expect someone to come to your aid when required?
Karunashram is growing by the day. It is home to various unfortunate animals. Every animal in our shelter has a story and every member in our team fights to keep them alive. It is our dream that someday, Karunashram becomes an exemplary shelter, where nature lives in harmony. A shelter that tells the World, that India is not only educated and cultured, it also has a heart. But we cannot do it alone. We need your help. Join us in our efforts to help these poor animals live a little more and to make Karunashram, an Institution of Hope.
Since Karunashram is based in Wardha, we do not have provisions to transport animals from other cities to our shelter .Karunashram can only guide people in such cases unless transportation and maintenance of the animal is provided for by the person who brings in the animal. It is our request to people that they sponsor the upkeep of such animals until they find good homes. We will revise this policy in future depending upon our capacity.
