Maneka Gandhi, former Member of Parliament (MP) in the Lok Sabha and the Founder-Chairperson of People For Animals (PFA), India’s largest animal welfare organisation, writes about the need for a Union to protect the rights of animal feeders. —Ed
Dear Animal Lover,
There are thousands of feeders and animal caretakers in every city. Most of them work alone. All of them are vulnerable to daily harassment, abuse and physical violence.
The Police do not take animal-related cases seriously. However, we have seen that when the animal welfare group comes together and protests then harassment stops, the Police listens and sanity and harmony in the community are restored.
Animal welfare is getting bigger all the time. But unless we can make policy makers, Police and politicians realise the power of the community, we will not be taken seriously.
During election time, this is the only group that is not consulted because we are NOT a group. Because all of us are apart, the animals suffer.
Therefore, it is proposed that we have an experiment.
There are 780 districts in India. In each zone, there will be a minimum of 10,000 feeders and caretakers. Out of these, we should make a Rapid Response Team of 1,000 people in each zone, who will come forward and go to the area if one feeder is attacked/abused/ignored by the Police or harassed by the Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs).
Not everyone will go as some people work or are busy or away when a crisis comes. But of these 1,000 per zone, at least 200-300 will respond.
This team will protect and be protected until India gets used to the idea that animal welfare people cannot be harassed.
The idea is to unionise in each city and replicate this Nationwide. If you would like to be on this team, fill out this information:
Name: ________________________________
Address (City, District, State): ___________
Contact Number: ______________________
Profession: ____________________________
and send it to: gandhim@exmpls.sansad.in
You can also simply fill this Google Form:
https://forms.gle/CxhiDR1WvryrJ3pM7
Your name, phone number and zone will be put into an app and that app will be given free to each animal welfare person to be used when they need help.
This app can be used for emergency help, rescues, calls for zoom and protest meetings. It will unionise animal welfare people and make each individual stronger. Please forward this to everyone you know who is an animal welfare person.
Maneka Sanjay Gandhi
This post was published on January 20, 2026 6:05 pm