The Animal Liberation March 2022 took place on 28thMay 2022 in Mumbai, Carter Road.
Over 500 people attended the march, which brought together not only people who were into animal activism, but also environmentalists, those concerned about health, animal rescuers and vegans.
People of different ages such as kids, youth, middle-aged, and senior citizens took part in the rally with equal vigour. This can be considered a great achievement for the animal rights movement as never before has India seen so many people come out and speak in support of the animals.
Animal liberation slogans were raised by the activist in different languages and later talks were given by the organizer of the march. Speakers such as actress Kitu Gidwani, singer Anushka Manchanda and Arvind Kannan took the stage to encourage the participants.
Nitin Jain, a renowned vegan activist from Bangalore also took part in the march. He said, “There was good participation as we got more than 400 vegans activists from across the country joined the march and close to 200 people were outside from Mumbai. They went back motivated with a better experience to make the movement bigger in their respective cities.”
“The primary aim of this march was to create awareness about Veganism and demand justice for animals. We tried to achieve this with placards and slogans stressing that all animal products, be it meat, eggs, dairy, leather, etc., comes from exploitation of animals and one must go vegan to stand against animal injustice. This educated the bystanders there and also through media and social media we took this message to wider public.”
“In last 2 years we have not been able to conduct any largescale animal rights events due to COVID restrictions. This march was important for people to know that animal rights movement is only growing in India despite of all the tactics tried by animal industry and the movement is not just limited to few cities.”
Amjor Chandran co-organiser of the march said, “We need to spread veganism for what it is- a social justice movement for animals. The idea is to take the movement mainstream. When there are more events like this, there will be more conservations about animals. We want the focus to be on the way animals are being treated by all industries.”
Shweta Savla, co-organiser of the march was surprised by the number of people who showed up for the march. “It shows that there are so many people who actually care about the animals and when we have these kinds of numbers showing up for the march, it becomes news and reaches more people. Five years ago not many people knew about what ‘vegan’ meant. Now we have so many vegan cafes. Every person is doing their bit for the animals, whether they are at the march, or spreading the cruelty-free message online.”
The Animal Liberation March 2022 did gather mainstream media attention and the attention of the spectators.
India rarely sees so many people come together to spread the message of veganism. The Animal Liberation March fills this need.
A march like this always uplifts the moment as people unite for compassion and spark conversations everywhere.
