Veganism fast catching fancy of Hyderabadis

Hyderabad: Can one live with a diet sans milk and animal by-products? The vegans, a growing community, who believe in making a conscious decision to abstain from harming animals, do, and their number is growing day by day. They believe that choosing animal-based food items have adverse effects on their health and the environment.

In Hyderabad, veganism is slowly catching on and there is also a dedicated Facebook group. Pulkit Parikh, a software engineer, who has been instrumental in promoting Veganism in the city, says, “We should reject and fight ‘speciesism’, the discrimination causing the exploitation of innocent sentient beings merely because they belong to non-human species. Animals may not talk or reason like us, but that is not relevant here at all. What matters ethically is their capacity to suffer.”

There are 45 volunteers who regularly participate in awareness campaigns such as video outreaches, screenings, marches, protests, stalls and potlucks. For special pan India events, the volunteer turnout gets even larger and includes people from all walks of life and various age groups, including software engineers, lecturers, students, writers and entrepreneurs. Weekly outreaches are often conducted in public parks and stalls in cultural spaces such as Lamakaan, Juxtapose, Our Sacred Space and Goethe Zentrum. Monthly potlucks are conducted for the benefit of new and transitioning vegans as well as anybody who is remotely interested in the concept.

Vegans believe that they are not deprived of protein and vitamins. Leafy green vegetables like coriander, methi, radish and curry leaves, til (sesame seeds), ragi, almonds, rajma, peas, moong, sprouts and soya products like tofu have sufficient proteins and vitamins for daily nourishment. However, nutritionists are still skecptical, Riaz, a health and wellness expert, says, “Vegans develop certain deficiencies. Major deficiency is vitamin B12 which is needed for our nervous and brain functioning. B12 is not present in vegetable product at all. As a substitute they need to consume fortified food.”

The common refrain Vegans encounter is that they lose out on enjoying sweets, cakes, ice-creams, curd, paneer, cheese, pizza, tea/coffee. However, Vegans counter that by saying, “Pretty much everything” can be enjoyed without anything animal-derived! A lot of vegetarian dishes ranging from idly/dosa to sambar to roti, vegetable curry to parathas are vegan by default. All that needs to be done is to exclude dairy products if any from such dishes.

The number of vegans in the UK has increased by 360% in the last ten years. Germany had around 80K vegans in 2008. Now, there are 1.3 million vegans in Germany! The US is also home to millions of vegans. In 2016, there was a 90% increase in the amount of Google searches for the word “vegan”. We have also seen changes at the public policy level. For instance, animal-tested cosmetics have been banned in a number of countries, including India. The variety and availability of vegan alternatives have also been rising fast in India.