Infocus- Indian Vegan Society (IVS)

The Indian Vegan Society (IVS)is a registered public charitable trust and its main focus is to promote vegetarianism and the vegan way of life among people. Based in a small town called Byndoor, on the western ghats in Karnataka, their Sthitaprajna vegan centre is a few acres of natural greens and browns, where the grass grows wild and the streams run free.

With vegan events, school visits, newspaper articles, television interviews, they bring awareness to people about a lifestyle which is good for their health, less damaging to the environment and which doesn’t harm our fellow beings. They also publish a newsletter “VeganVegetarian” to try and bring together like-minded people under a platform. With their presence and activities, they give a sense of belongingness to all ‘vegans and vegan minded people’.

The Society is also a regular at events promoting the ‘satvik’ way of life, the most recent ones being attendance at the 41st IVU World Vegetarian Congress and Vegfest, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and hosting the 11th International Vegan Festival in September 2014. The latter event had wide participation from national and international vegan practitioners.

Till date, they have conducted 25 humane education programmes for teachers and students in schools in eight towns surrounding Byndoor.

IVS has also instituted the ‘vegan of the year’ award to recognize and appreciate the services of people who take the cause further in various arenas. Their ‘Vegan Vacations’ are tailored to suit those who want to reduce their ecological footprint, who are health conscious and who want to be fair to fellow animals and humans by consciously not causing any harm to them.

Visit their website http://www.indianvegansociety.com/ to know more about their activities.