THE POWER OF 100 : EDUCATION & SOCIAL WORK

ACHIEVERS ACROSS THE DOMAINS OF POLITICS, BUSINESS, SCIENCE, THE ARTS, ENTERTAINMENT, SPORTS, EDUCATION, LAW AND DEFENCE WHO ARE SHOWING US WHAT WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT LOOKS LIKE

- Shelly Anand ,Sonali Acharjee ,Kaushik Deka ,M.G. Arun, Ajay Sukumaran ,Jumana Shah

Geeta Seshamani, 73 Co-founder, Friendicoes SECA and Wildlife Sos

ANIMAL'S BEST FRIEND

IN THE MID-1970S, a small group of young kids decided to start a ‘kindness club’ for rescued stray animals under New Delhi’s Defence Colony flyover. “We were given space by the then prime minister, Indira Gandhi. We found so many distressed, injured, and abandoned animals,” says Geeta Seshamani, who was one of the kids. The group went on to set up Friendicoes SECA for assisting street animals in 1979 and has remained committed to animal welfare ever since. Seshamani has been with the NGO since its inception. In 1995, she also co-founded the NGO Wildlife SOS.

“We are bringing up our children without teaching them how to share the world with others,” says Seshamani, who returned from the US after a Ph.D. so that her child could experience community wildlife. “I wanted my child to know what it is like to see birds on trees, feed a cow or a dog on the street.”

Over the past decade, her NGO has seen many animals with broken limbs, who have been attacked with acid or glass bottles, or even starved or almost beaten to death. “Animal abuse has grown. A single dog bite is hyped up in the media and the perception changes towards community animals. We don’t understand them, and if you see pictures of dogs salivating like wolves, you will start to fear them, says Seshamani.

In the past few years, the NGO has also been grappling with abandoned animals and a drop in community feeders, thanks to Covid-19.