The best picture of the contest that began Sunday will be awarded after November 20. (Representational image/Photo by Ravi Kanojia)
In an attempt to raise awareness about the importance of cows, an NGO in Kolkata has organised a selfie contest where people are urged to take pictures with the bovine animal and post them on social networking sites. The best picture of the contest that began Sunday will be awarded after November 20.
Go Seva Parivar, a Kolkata-based trust, has been organising this contest since 2015. The winners will be awarded cow products such as dish washer, disinfectant, soaps made of cow urine and dung, apart from a certificate and memento.
“The aim is to spread awareness among the youngsters about the bovine animal. In cities we seldom see cows and there are youngsters who have never been close to one. We urge individuals and families to take selfies with cows and share it under the name ‘#selfiewithgomata’ on Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter. Apart from milk, cow dung and cow urine are essential for farming, medicines and other purposes. To us, cows are celebrities, they are our gau mata,” said Lalit Agarwal, a member of Go Seva Parivar.
“When we first started the contest, around 1,200 participants took part. This year, we expect the number to cross 4,000,” Agarwal added.
The organisation, which works for protection of cows and promotion of its products, will organise an event in the city to award the winners after November 20.
The organisation also trains farmers in villages of Bengal for use of cow products such as urine and cow dung. The trust also claims to create awareness about the medicinal benefit of cow urine.
“Presently we have trained over 3,000 farmers in 100 villages in various districts of Bengal. We train them regarding the use of cow dung and urine as fertilizers and setting up biogas plants. We teach them about the medicinal use of cow urine. This is apart from milk. It is of mutual benefit and respect. Farmers will be financially better off with cows in their homes,” Agarwal added.