Pratiksha is an architecture student, a freelance graphic designer, an artist
and an animal rights activist. She loves painting and making plastic free
crafts. She also likes reusing old clothes and making dresses. All together,
she is completely into the field of art and sustainability.
What made you go vegan?
I belong to a Jain family and since childhood my mom taught me that we should
respect other's lives be it a human, an ant or a mosquito. I always knew that
it's wrong to eat animals and use animal derived products. I always used to
tell my friends who ate non-veg that it's wrong. But I never knew that I myself
was supporting something which causes pain and suffering to animals. I always
loved dairy products and used to think that there is nothing wrong with them.
In June 2019, I was on a 15 day plant based diet. I didn't know anything about
veganism. I came across this diet through the Satvic movement about a healthy
lifestyle. In that, they advised us to not drink milk and to avoid dairy
products. But on 1st July 2019, in the morning I came across one post on Insta
which said, "If you consume dairy, you support the beef industry. Watch Deadly
Dairy and Cowspiracy on YouTube." At that moment,
I watched Deadly Dairy and after knowing the truth, I decided to go vegan and
went vegan that day itself.
Also, after watching Cowspiracy, I learnt how my choices were harming the
environment. I was a climate activist on social media and was trying to follow
a zero waste lifestyle at that time. Then, I started attending Fridays for
Future events and started social media activism for animals. In the process, I
met Ravi
Keerthi with whom I started
street activism for the animals.
Was it easier to turn vegan being in a Jain
family?
It was easier, but less because I am from a Jain family and more for the reason that my parents were quite supportive. When I explained to them about the cruelty towards cows and the whole process, they were very convinced. My mom also turned vegan after that. My dad was not supportive in the starting because he was worried that if I don't take milk, I might fall sick. Gradually he understood everything. Even though he hasn't turned vegan, he has stopped drinking milk for some time. My mom and my younger brother are vegan.
How did your activism start? How has your
experience been?
I am from Lucknow, I study architecture in Vijayawada. I started my activism in Vijayawada when I met Ravi Keerthi. There was a language barrier in Vijayawada because I don't know Telugu at all. I used to go with Ravi anna for outreach. I used to hold a laptop and he used to speak. We were around 3-4 people. Sometimes, I used to do chalktivism there because I was good at writing and drawing. Around October, I started focusing more on social media activism due to the language barrier while doing street activism. I made a video regarding it. After that, I collaborated with Ravi Keerthi for one of his videos for Mission Vegan Andhra. That video was about Jainism and Ahimsa.
In December, I'd gone to Pune for around 3 months for my internship. I joined an animal activism group there also and used to attend it every weekend. It was quite a good experience there especially for the fact that I could use Hindi there. In the beginning, I was a bit scared to talk to people. For the first 2 weekends, I went for activism but I didn't speak to people out of nervousness. I used to do leaf-letting and laptop holding. There I met two activists, Deepak and Swati. They motivated me to speak to people and not be scared.
I organised the Satyagraha 2 event of the Vegan India Movement in Pune. Sakshi and I also organised Women's Day Outreach. That was in collaboration with Animal Equality. I learnt a lot in these few months at Pune regarding street activism.
How are you incorporating your artistic skills in activism?
Recently we have started an Instagram page, United for The Unheard (UFTU India). Sakshi, Raj and I are the co-founders of UFTU. I handle graphic designing for that page. Other than that, I used to do some illustrations earlier. Currently, I am working with embroidery more. However, I always try to make my products eco friendly and sustainable. I never use plastic in my packaging.
From childhood, I had a dream that I would open a handicraft business. After turning vegan, I also came to know about sustainability. Hence. I decided to incorporate that too in my products. I do almost everything from scratch and try to purchase less.
What are your plans ahead for UFTU?
For now, we're sticking to social media activism. We have two pages, UFTU India and UFTU Hindi. Our plan is to cover as many regional languages as possible. UFTU Marathi will be coming soon. After that, we'll be coming with UFTU Kannada. The main aim is to reach to all the regions of India through these regional languages. Once the COVID situation gets better, we're planning offline activism as well.
What message would you like to share for fellow
vegans?
I think every vegan should try to do activism as
and when possible. I am not saying that if you're vegan and not doing activism,
you're doing anything wrong. However, the number of animals being killed is
very huge and there are a limited number of vegans who're raising their voice
for animals. So, it's very important that people get actively involved in any
way possible. If not a post, it can be shared in the story as well.
Another thing I would like to point out within our vegan community is that many times, activists fight with each other and I am totally against it. It's possible that two people might have different ideas with the same goal. It's okay to follow your own idea and do activism. But it's not fine to publicly mock other fellow activists on social media. It is not good on an individual level as well as for the movement. I've come across a few instances where some activists pin point other activists on social media.
Anything else you would like to share?
After getting involved in animal rights activism, I've come to know about a lot of new things like anti-natalism, LGBTQ rights, raw plant based diet, etc. Also, before turning vegan, I was an introvert and because of that I have a fear of talking in front of new people. So, in the beginning I faced problems while doing activism. I used to avoid talking and just stood with my laptop. But slowly with the help and motivation of Pune activists I learnt how to reach out to people on streets during activism. That has been very helpful for a person like me.
Final message to non-vegans...
If you know the truth then please don't ignore it, change your actions and
align them with your ethics. If you don't know the truth, research it online,
reach out to us, we will help you out to become a vegan and an activist.