Tata Power, PETA India join hands to bring humane education to students

On the eve of Teachers' Day, Tata Power and animal rights body PETA India have joined hands to provide humane education programme material to teachers of 250 schools across the country.

In a statement, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India said its programme material and accompanying video are now available to teachers for students aged between 8 years and 12 years on Tata Power Club Enerji webpage.

The humane education programme aims to foster kindness, empathy, and respect among students. Compassionate Citizen is PETA India's version of the group's US programme for humane education -- Share the World -- which teaches children to be kind to animals.

This programme can easily be included in the school curricula via language arts, science, and social studies and when teaching about environmental issues and values while it is also perfect for use in eco and animal rights clubs in schools, the body said in the statement.

"As part of its ground breaking corporate social responsibility initiative, and just ahead of Teachers' Day on September 5, Tata Power has teamed up with PETA India to help teachers at 250 schools across India access materials from the group's humane education programme, Compassionate Citizen, in order to help foster kindness, empathy, and respect for others in their students," the body said.

Compassionate Citizen is endorsed by the Animal Welfare Board of India, the Central Board of Secondary Education, and Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan schools, the statement read.

It has been voluntarily used by 1.67 lakh schools, reaching nearly 59 million children across India.

Many states including Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, and Telangana have issued circulars asking schools to integrate the programme into their official curricula, it pointed out in the statement.

"It is said that when you teach a child to be kind to a mouse, you do as much for the child as you do for the mouse," said PETA India manager, education and youth outreach, Puja Mahajan.

PETA India said it is well documented by psychologists, sociologists, and law-enforcement officials that acts of cruelty to animals by children are often a precursor to violence towards humans.

The Compassionate Citizen programme is a comprehensive interdisciplinary curriculum that includes a 23-minute video featuring inspiring animal stories, amazing facts, easy-to-understand analogies that help students take someone else's point of view, and age-appropriate information on ways that kids can save animals.

"It touches on stopping bullying, helping the environment, saving wild animals, taking good care of animal companions, and much more.

"The material is currently available in English. It will soon be available in Hindi, and can be translated into other languages when there is significant demand," the body added.