National News

Rashtriya Kamdhenu Aayog to promote Panchgavya products this Diwali Festival

12 October 2020, New Delhi, IN: Encouraged by the response to Gaumaya Ganesha Campaign which boosted usage of eco-friendly material in the manufacture of idols for the Ganesha Festival based on the appeal made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Rashtriya Kamdhenu Aayog (RKA) has started a nationwide campaign to celebrate “Kamdhenu Deepawali Abhiyan” this year on the occasion of Deepawali festival.

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Through this campaign, the RKA is promoting extensive use of cow-dung/ Panchgavya products. Manufacture of Cow dung based Diyas, Candles, Dhoop, Agarbatti, Shubh-Labh, Swastik, Samrani, Hardboard, Wall-piece, Paper-weight, Havan samagri, Idols of Lord Ganesha and Goddess Lakshmi for this year’s Diwali festival has already started.

RKA aims to reach 11 crore families to light 33 crores Diyas made of cow-dung during this year’s Deepawali festival. The feedback received so far is very encouraging and approximately 3 lakh Diyas would be lighted in the holy city of Ayodhya alone, 1 lakh Diyas will be lit in Varanasi.

Generating Business Opportunities

Apart from generating business opportunities for thousands of cow-based entrepreneurs/farmers/ women entrepreneurs, the use of cow-dung products will lead to a cleaner and healthier environment. It will help in making Gaushalas ‘Atma Nirbhar’ too. By providing an environment-friendly alternative to Chinese-made Diyas, the campaign will boost up Make in India’s vision and mission of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and also promote the ‘Swadeshi’ movement while reducing environmental damage.

Various segments of stakeholders like farmers, manufacturers, entrepreneurs, Gaushalas and others are being involved to make the campaign of Kamdhenu Deepawali a grand success.

Rashtriya Kamdhenu Aayog (RKA) has been constituted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the conservation, protection, and development of cows and their progeny and for giving direction to the cattle development programs. RKA is the high powered permanent body to formulate policy and to provide direction to the implementation of schemes related to cattle so as to give more emphasis on livelihood generation.

The livestock economy sustains nearly 73 million households in rural areas. Even though, the country is the largest producer of milk, the average milk yield in India is only 50% of the world average. Low productivity is largely due to deterioration in genetic stock, poor nutrition, and unscientific management. The trend needs to be reversed and popular perception about the cow and cow-based agriculture and cow-based industry needs to be corrected immediately for social and economic rejuvenation of society particularly poor in rural areas.