Earlier, this week we had a parent call to us and report on an issue which jolted us as the parent told that their child who is a student of a Corporation school who off late has been behaving weirdly and stopped eating regular food at home. After many tribulations it was found that she has been persuaded by a person who had held a session at her school in which he has presented videos of mass animal slaughtering from the Western countries and explained on why we should be compassionate to animals and why they cannot be our food.
Coimbatore: Earlier, this week we had a parent call to us and report on an issue which jolted us as the parent told that their child who is a student of a Corporation school who off late has been behaving weirdly and stopped eating regular food at home. After many tribulations it was found that she has been persuaded by a person who had held a session at her school in which he has presented videos of mass animal slaughtering from the Western countries and explained on why we should be compassionate to animals and why they cannot be our food.
The Case
“My daughter who is 12-year-old is anaemic and we have been told by the doctor to add more iron rich foods to her diet including liver, eggs and other supplements. Though we are from a poor family, we somehow ensure to cook them on a regular basis for her as my girl is almost in her puberty stage. While her anaemic condition was getting better, my daughter suddenly acted weird during our dinner times. She became very choosy and pesky about having food. Though initially i dint take it serious, she developed an aversion to any regular food at home especially meat and eggs. Her diet came down drastically. I was confused. And after much tribulations and talking to her we found that she lost the fervour for eating any food at all as she saw videos of animals being processed in factories in the West. She started doubting every food that was kept in her plate and her appetite was lost completely. When asked she bursted out in tears and explained her ordeal with food which started with videos being presented to her in her school.” said the mother who requested anonymity.
She further lamented that not only has she been avoiding food but she is consumed by the guilt that she has eaten so much chicken, goat meat and eggs in the past. She self inflicts guilt on her and remains restless.
“The mother who is now unable to deal with the emotional battle her child undergoes has alleged that my daughter has been brainwashed at a session held in her school by some animal activist who has propagated about veganism at her school. Even in the mid day meal she throws away the egg,” her friend told me.
For the past few months am battling with my daughter over this issue and still not make her understand the fact that we are eating as per our food habits and its a cycle. Since our parents used to work in farms earlier, I explained to her how the food chain works and all this is a conspiracy by certain people who want to impose their choices on us. The worst part is we had to refrain from attending our “Kula Deivam” (ancestral deity) worship because we would offer meat to the God. My girl who has been enjoying this festival is now reluctant to attend our family ritual which has left us very worried, told the Mother who hails from a simple economic background and is clueless of how to make her daughter unlearn the things that has disturbed her mentally.
The Problem
Finally she decided to question this and decided to raise the issue but was scared of the repercussions of going against the administration. Hearing the woes of this mother, we probed about the issue and it came to light that there has been regular sessions held at private, government and corporation schools by an animal activist who has been promoting veganism in indirect and direct ways to young children at schools (mostly corporation schools) through presentations and unscientific data.
According to his own admission on his Facebook page in which he regularly updates on the sessions and how many children were present and how he was able to create an impact among them, the enormity of his sessions’ reach is appalling as the person claims to have met 1.38 lakh students so far and proudly forced his theory.
Who Gave the Permission?
Shell-shocked by how such unethical sessions were even permitted at government schools, we contacted the Chief Educational Officer, P. Ayyannan
who says that he had not permitted any such classes in any of the schools in Coimbatore and is completely not aware of such sessions.
“The schools should not encourage such sessions and I will immediately send a circular to all the schools to stop allowing such people inside the school. Any school who is seen to violate the basic tenets of education will be severely punished,” he informed. During our enquiry as to how these people get access to hold such unauthorised sessions in schools revealed that they have been given access based on recommendations from social activists close to the Corporation authorities.
The Propaganda Artist
The incident we have referred here is being carried out by V. Aravindan, the CEO of Vijay Sweets and Heena Acharya, an ‘animal rights activist’ from Coimbatore who has been going from school to school – both private and government schools – to propagate his ideas on Veganism masked under the premise of preventing cruelty to stray animals.
His sessions are curated with handpicked videos from mass meat production factories in the West, followed by interactive sessions with children creating a guilty consciousness among them for their food choices and its ill effects according to a few unscientific vegan theories. At the end of the session, he also gets handwritten feedback notes from children, wherein the children admit to stop eating non-vegetarian food and posts them in social media.
The Target Segment
He has been outright in his assertion that it is the children, who are unable to question the validity of his claims, that have to be targeted as parents will follow their interests. He gleefully shares in one of his comments, that a parent is now complaining that her ward “is not taking milk anymore”.
Winner, winner, “no“ Chicken Dinner - The Feedbacks
The brainwashing was so persuasive that he had managed to make children write in their feedback pledging to stop eating meat which they have been consuming for the past several years. “What they said was nice. We were eating fish and chicken in the past. We have understood that like we have freedom, animals also deserve freedom,” said a child in one of the feedback note.
“Anna, what you said was nice. We had been doing many things so far. You have explained beautifully something we have not thought of so far. We will not eat meat anymore” read another feedback note. “Winner, winner, no chicken dinner”, read another note.
Shockingly, in every of his sessions the photos posted in his Facebook page shows atleast 4-6 teachers sitting along with the children and keenly observing the videos shown by him.
What do the experts say?
Seeking immediate action against the incident by vegans who brainwash school children in the name of environment and conservation sessions in Coimbatore, child rights activists demand an immediate ban on such sessions in education institutions.
They opine that such negative conditioning to ideas involving the rights of an individual is a serious thing to be dealt with and when it is done through education, it must be pulled down immediately.
The idea of taking his individual theories to schools has not gone well with activists who condemn that such activities must be stopped immediately and should be reprimanded for afflicting such mental torture in the minds of the kids.
"Schools permitting such sessions and forcing children to see videos that show large-scale meat factories chopping meat is beyond imagination. Even while conducting classes about menstrual hygiene, children are not shown real blood, in such a scenario showing such raw footages to children would permanently scar their mind and psychologically set a guilt in their minds for the perverse biases of a privileged few. They will surely inherit a very wrong perspective of how the food chain and eco-system works. Ultimately, children who attend these sessions will see the whole world through jaded glasses and every other human will be considered a murderer whereas just like other animals, we are also part of the food chain", opined an educationalist from a reputed school.
Calling it as an act of immorality at school level, Educationist Prince Gajendra Babu said that it was against the constitution of the country as it stops from creating a scientific temperament for children.
“The children can never learn the scientific temperament, which is a right according to section 51 A of the Indian Constitution, if they are emotionally brainwashed in this manner. This would also create hatred in their hearts towards non-vegetarians and the school would be left to battle discrimination in a different way altogether. This is a violation of section 17,” he said.
Questioning why such people are not concerned about cruelty to children, he asked why they did not raise their voice for young girls who have been subjected to sexual abuse and murder across the country.
“They should teach children to stand against abuse and to stop eating junk food. But rather, they inject their agenda very silently and it is the responsibility of the Government to immediately send a circular to all schools to stop encouraging such activities and to also pull up the schools who gave this session to kids to provide immediate recourse. If anyone approaches the schools with such ideas or brainwashing sessions, the heads of the schools must immediately check their motive and agenda before allowing them,” he told Simplicity.
Child Rights Activist A. Devaneyan who claimed it was against the rights of children said that individual ideas should not be forced on children as it could have a lasting psychological impact on them.
“This is equal to casteism and is totally against science. Ideas such as these would only create humans with no humanity and judgmental mindsets,” he opined, adding that there were similar incidents in Chennai, which was stopped after the intervention of activists.
"The competition between schools in conducting sessions has blinded them look for the right people and scrutinise the topics of discussion. Lecturing on irrational, unscientific and sensitive matters like religion, language, food choices should never be entertained at educational institutions. Students who would often be mute spectators fall prey to their lectures and false claims. They believe that children can be used as ambassadors for spreading their ideologies in their homes and neighborhood at large", slammed a parent of a five-year-old kid who says "We know what we eat as a family".
Talking about the health impacts of suddenly following a vegan diet at a young age, Y. Rathipriya, a nutritionist from Coimbatore, informed that the child may well end up in B12 deficiency, if they stopped consuming meat.
“Food is a personal choice and the claims made by people who follow the vegan diet are often extrapolated. Non-vegetarian is healthy and rich in protein. If people follow a vegan diet, meeting the protein requirement would be a major challenge. There are high chances that the child could end up being deficient in B12 vitamin, which could lead to neurological problems and pernicious anaemia,” she said.
While some activists see it as a social problem, Karthikeya Sivasenapathy, Managing Trustee of Senapathy Kangayam Cattle Research Foundation, said that it was a cultural problem that should be addressed immediately.
“Veganism is for the Westerners who need the company of animals as they lead solitary lives. The animals here have a purpose and are not only used as companions. Around 97% of people in Tamil Nadu eat meat and the average is more than 98 per cent in all the Southern States dominated by the Dravidian people. It is the Aryan races from the north who are propagating such ideas to diminish our brain development and education and also to prevent the nutrition inflow to our children,” he said.
Calling meat as a protein supplement of the layman who was unable to afford milk products in the past, Karthikeya Sivasenapathy also bombarded the people propagating such ideas by calling them “fake animal rights activist”.
“These people have been fighting with our culture in the past and have taken up this now. Who are they to teach us what to eat and what not to eat? This must be stopped at all costs as it is totally illegal and the persons involved must be punished. I would go on to say that the animals we eat have survived the evolutionary path till 2019 just because they were a source of food for us. Many breeds of native animals in North India have come to the stage of extinction simply because the people who consumed them had stopped eating them,” he opined.
At Krishna College
P.R. Natarajan, Member of Parliament from the Coimbatore Constituency said that it was unjust on the part of officials to allow such acts in schools and destroy the health and education of children.
“The act must be condemned and stopped immediately for the welfare of children,” he said.
When contacted, the District Collector and Commissioner of Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation did not respond.
What needs to be done?
While every life form in this planet survives by eating another life form and after repeated studies showing that even trees communicate their danger to other trees, veganism is a pseudo quack theory purported by a few as a lifestyle choice. Even our own evolutionary progress suggests that meat eating helped us in becoming who we are in the evolutionary chain.
While every individual has the right to follow his own dietary choices including veganism, it is immoral, unconstitutional and unethical to push it on kids whose health can be highly compromised due to lack of essential nutrients required for their growth. Moreover when it is pushed on parents from low economic backgrounds, it causes severe strain in their lifestyle as vegan alternatives are almost alway niche and pricey.
In a state that prides in providing rich nutrients to kids in school through eggs in mid day meal scheme, this kind of pseudo activism strikes at the heart of our progress.
This issue has come out in the open because one mother raised the issue, but this malaise is now a deep rooted one in our society considering the number of kids this activist has been allowed to address. It only makes us wonder how many such kids and their parents are struggling with such fake propaganda in their homes.
There have been many court rulings in the Western countries reprimanding the parents for forcing vegan diets on children some of whom have even died because of their parent’s foolhardiness.
What needs to be taught in schools are established facts and not theories that are the whims and fancies of a few. Food choices, religious practices and other personal beliefs are not to be tampered with in schools. While the government is working hard to create a scientific temper among kids through advanced syllabuses and established concepts, these type of pseudo theories about food habits of people is not only unconstitutional but also immoral. The fact that a person has been able to address 1.38 lakh kids in a continuous and phased manner should be a shame to all concerned authorities with the education of kids. Schools and educational institutions who invited this activist should be reprimanded for allowing such sessions which all stems from their clamour to invite social media sensations who run around with likes and views as their credentials.
We hope the District Administration looks into this menacing issue with forthrightness and take immediate action against the activist, those who recommended him to schools and the schools and colleges who have been pushing this agenda of false and unscientific propaganda to children.