By OUR STAFF REPORTER
Dehradun, 12 Nov: After meeting with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India, the Director General of the Department of School Education, Jharna Kamthan, issued a circular requiring all state schools in Uttarakhand to download PETA India’s free humane education programme, ‘Compassionate Citizen’, designed to sensitise children from ages 8 to 12 years old to better understand and appreciate animals and to facilitate workshops through PETA India and Dayalu Nagrik Manav Sewa Trust.
“Children have a natural affinity for animals, and this programme is designed to help them carry their compassion into adulthood,” says PETA India Director of Education and Youth Outreach Puja Mahajan. “PETA India thanks the education department of Uttarakhand for helping give impressionable young minds the gift of humane education, which will help make a kinder future world.”
Compassionate Citizen consists of a teacher’s guide, reproducible activity sheets – including a colouring sheet and a kindness pledge that children can sign – a full-colour wall poster, an engaging 23-minute video, and an insert listing easy ways teachers and schools can encourage students to help animals. It has been used by over 2 lakh public, private, international and state government schools, impacting nearly 9.3 crore children across India.
An earlier version of the programme was endorsed by the Animal Welfare Board of India, the Central Board of Secondary Education, the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan, and the education departments of Andhra Pradesh, Chandigarh, Delhi, Haryana, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, and Telangana. The revamped online version has also been endorsed by the directorates of school education in Haryana and Delhi.
PETA India’s motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”, and the group opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. Teachers can download the Compassionate Citizen educational materials and video from the PETA India website. Free copies of the materials and video can also be requested by writing to PETA India at PujaM@petaindia.org.
