Celebrities endorse social causes
Kamal Haasan has called upon all to join the fight against female foeticide
By : anupama subramanian
Update: 2015-09-03 03:18 GMT
The repercussions of the dangerously diminishing child sex ratio are already being felt in our country. Heritage India Foundation is launching a nation-wide campaign called #Fight4theFoetus aimed at putting an immediate stop to female foeticide, which is mainly responsible for the low child sex ratio. A nation-wide campaign is to be launched on October 11, 2015.
Supporting the cause, Kamal Haasan has called upon all to join the fight against female foeticide. He says, “Stop murdering the girl child in the womb as this crime will take mankind back to the cannibalistic prehistoric days. Remember that women are our sisters and mothers.” He also argues strongly against those who advocate now-obsolete customs like polyandry as solutions to this problem. He points out, “It is a national situation, which India needs to introspect, inspect and come up with remedies.” Saying that this is not an issue limited to a particular area, he calls upon all of us to join the fight against female foeticide.
He is not the only one in K-town to take up a social cause. Karthi had taken up the cause of transgender rights a few years ago and is actively involved with it till date. Talking about it, he said, “When the organisers of HERO project approached me and asked me to represent the cause, I was only too glad to be a part of the project and immediately agreed to endorse it. I imparted the message ‘transgenders need to be treated equally in the society’. I feel they are more talented than us. I did a song with them in my debut film Parutthiveeran. They don’t expect sympathy from us. They have lot of self-respect and now a movement has been started to give them education and train them for cottage industries.”
Trisha is also working relentlessly for the cause of animal welfare, especially dogs. The actress has been a part of several campaigns for the adoption of stray Indian dogs. “I just feel these campaigns are a great way to get the message out there. Adopt a dog and give him/her a home, and treat it as part of the family.”
She adds, “I love being part of causes I believe in. Children and animals — I have always felt the need to support them, and when you feel passionate about it, it comes straight from the heart. More than me making a difference in their lives, my whole life changed because of my association with them.”
She also wrote to the Mayor of Chennai recently, asking him to stop plans to roundup dogs and confine them to pounds. Warehousing dogs, even if they are sick or old, for the rest of their lives is extremely cruel. “Chennai has resorted to dog pounds in the past, and this approach failed to control either the dog population or rabies. Removing dogs from the streets leaves their territories vacant, which results in an influx of other dogs from neighbouring areas. Dogs also reproduce quickly, so as long as unsterilised dogs remain on the streets, the stray-animal crisis will persist,” she had said then.
Recently, actor Vishal, along with his peers supporters, went on a hunger strike in the city to raise a voice against the culling of stray dogs in Kerala at an event organised by ‘People For Cattle India’. “I am a dog lover. I wanted to raise my voice against the cruelty meted out to stray dogs. They also co-exist in this society and nobody has the right to kill theml,” he said.
Being an animal lover, in a bid to support cattle Vishal protested against their slaughter. His speech at the cattle conference organised by Coimbatore Cattle Care Welfare Trust (CCCWT) was a huge hit. Coimbatore is the exit point for cattle to Kerala, from various states like Odisha, Maha-rashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. On an average, 50,000 cattle are transported to Kerala per month via Coimbatore. The event saw a gathering over 10,000 strong students and passionate cattle lovers rooting for this cause.