A CENTRE FOR PROVIDING FACILITIES FOR LEARNING FOR STUDENTS

                  Everybody will agree that especially for the purpose of higher and competitive examinations, the students need a proper atmosphere for studies. This may not be available in the homes of the students due to various reasons. Prakrit Bharati Academy, Jaipur provides such an atmosphere free of charge daily, for learning for about 800 such ambitious students. The facilities for these students include room(s), tables, chairs, lighting, fans, library of books and magazines and a motivating environment. There are separate rooms for groups of students studying for medical, competitive and other higher level examinations. The students can avail of these facilities daily generally from 7 AM to 10 PM.  They can borrow books free of charge, out of about 85,000 books in the library, 100 magazines of general and competitive type and 25 English and Hindi daily Newspapers. For some magazines even 2 or 3 copies are obtained for the library. The present membership of the library is 5,000. Many students studying here do not go home for their lunch and obtain their lunch either from their homes or from Tiffin Centres and enjoy the same in the gardens of the Academy.  One student had told that he has been coming to the Academy daily for the last two months, from his house, which is 5 kms. away and staying here for about 14 hours for study & getting his Tiffin here only. He further stated that the students get motivating atmosphere for studies and also an opportunity to discuss about the common problems and difficulties with their friends. This academy therefore, in a way, is a blessing for them.

                        These facilities are also provided to about 15 research workers coming from Kolkata, Jodhpur, Udaipur, Bhilwara, Ladnun and Jaipur. They work on subjects like Philosophy, Astrology Science, Hindi, History, Fine Arts, Sanskrit, Prakrit, Buddha religion, Jain religion etc. This library is considered very important for research workers also. It contains largest number of books about Gandhian literature. The former Chairman of SEBI, Mr. D R Mehta IAS had laid the foundation of this Academy on Feb 21, 1977 and is its Founder and Chief Patron. This is a voluntary and registered, literary and cultural organization. It is managed by a committee, which has renowned experts. Its finances are mostly managed by donations received from various sources. Many persons have donated books to this library and these books are then donated further to different schools. This Academy has a mobile library having 10,000.books and is in operation in various colonies where books are given on loan to the public for creating interest among them. .The Academy conducts regular teaching programmes for Prakrit Prathma and Prakrit Visharad examinations. So far 340 books have been published by this Academy. Generally every year about 25 books are published in English, Hindi and other Indian languages. The Academy also arranges for Hindi and English translations of rare literature in Prakrit, Sanskrit and other old languages. The publications of Academy can be seen in the libraries of Cambridge, Oxford, New York, Washington, Boston, Tokyo, Singapore, Sydney, Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai, and Kolkata. This Academy also arranges lectures and seminars in its Conference Hall, in collaboration with other organizations and departments of Universities. In the past, when required, it had also provided facilities for regular programmes and practice of Art of Living in a separate room. It is also working in the field of Vegetarianism and Kindness to Animals. Society for Scientific and Ethical living works through its Non-violence Centre, Beauty without Cruelty through seminars and publications. It also provides a comfortable place for the rest, relaxation and entertainment of the senior citizens during the day time. This Academy therefore, with the support of various individuals & organizations, can continue to improve its scope of facilities & activities for students, research workers, senior citizens & the common man.

                                                                                                 --------vijaiksharma

Compiled and presented by vijaiksharma, as a result of discussions in the meetings with Saturday Group Members Dr. L K Kothari, Dr. D K Jain, Mr. Surendra Bothara, Mr. Shri Gopal Garg and Mr. Vijai K Sharma at Jaipur.  

CRUELTY AGAINST ANIMALS FOR ANY PURPOSE IS QUESTIONABLE

            Many of us probably know that several types of animals are being used for research work, in many countries, including India. During this process, they are subjected to adverse situations leading to cruelty against them. In some cases, the objective is said to be to carry out research for finding cures for human diseases. First of all, are we sure that the experiments being conducted on animals give a realistic picture? The second question which arises is as to what is the fault of the animals, due to which the animals should be subjected to cruelty. Can we not do without this testing on animals in this cruel manner? Though it is called research, the animals are subjected to fearful, painful, stressful and harmful experiments, even sometimes leading to barbaric killing in various institutions and laboratories etc. Do we have a right to kill animals? Sometimes duplicate set of experiments are also done unnecessarily. The animals are housed in filthy, narrow and congested cages/spaces, subjected to isolation and stressful environment, compelled to consume contaminated food and water, have inadequate support of veterinary Doctor for treatment, with likelihood of accidents & injuries even leading to accidental deaths also. Cruelty is also taking place during several other instances/places as well, which we should take note of. One usual place is during their use in vehicles, like a Tonga using a horse, a bullock cart using bullocks, cart using a donkey or a camel, donkeys used for carrying loads of bricks, sand or clothes etc. on their backs. Elephants are used for transporting logs of wood. Also elephants and camels are used for joy rides for human beings, camels are used for races and dance, monkeys are used for dance and bird fights as well as bull fights are arranged for entertainment of human beings. Besides this, the use of various animals for circus as well as for cinema, needs examination and consideration. In zoos, animals may not be housed in very friendly/comfortable environment. While keeping these animals at homes, they may be chained or caged for example cows, buffaloes, horses, donkeys and dogs etc.  are chained and birds, rabbits etc. are caged. Some animals are kept in some homes as pets or even small zoos at homes and whether these have a reasonably good environment, needs consideration. Sometimes animals are transported by air, by train or by road. Their comfort during their journey needs examination. Several persons may be unaware of all this. The general public should be made aware of these experiments being done, the reasons and necessity thereof and the possibilities of alternatives. Awareness should lead to reduction and stoppage of such cases, through public opinion, direct and legal action.  If a sample survey is conducted across all sections of the society, spread over various cities and towns of the country, about the personal experiences with animals and for obtaining an idea of the prevailing public opinion, lot of information may be forth coming, which we may not be having at present. This will of course, help in creating further awareness, as well as well as in motivating us to innovate and try to find alternative methods, to resolve this problem.

            Compiled and presented by vijaiksharma, as a result of discussions in the meetings with Saturday Group Members Dr. L K Kothari, Dr. D K Jain, Mr. Surendra Bothara, Dr. Rajendra Ratnesh, and Mr. Vijai K Sharma at Jaipur.

                                                                                     ----------vijaiksharma