In the ancient scriptures of India called Upanishadas, it is said that,

मन एव मनुष्याणां कारणं बन्ध मोक्षयोः।
बन्धाय विषयासक्तं मुक्तयैर्निर्विषयं मनः।।

A person’s state of mind determines, whether he is having happiness or grief. But what if the mind itself is lost….? Nowadays we often hear the words depression or frustration. But if you see a mentally unstable person wandering the streets, oblivious to the world around you, you realize that being mentally ill is more terrible than any physical illness. It is stripping a man of his identity as ‘Human’. And if this psychopath is a woman, her life is worse than hell. She also becomes a victim of society’s distortions. The burden of motherhood falls on her without even realizing it. Her body gets affected from many diseases and ailments.

The organization ‘Mauli Seva Pratishthan’ provides shelter and treatment to such women who are rejected by their own families and have lost their minds. Here they get shelter, food and warmth. It is their HOME! A devoted couple, husband Dr. Rajendra and wife Dr. Sucheta Dhamane take care of more than 500 such women till their last breath with great love and dedication.

Many times on the occasion of various projects of Rotary, I came in contact with this organization. I also helped them in some ways. But there was a deep desire that this donation-based organization should make some concerted efforts to become self-sustaining. This desire was further strengthened by Rotary International President Gordon R. McInally’s designation of 2023-24 as the year for Mental Health. On discussion with Dr. Dhamne and volunteers in organization, it was realized that these women are not that stable to do any skilled work. But they can do agriculture, goat rearing, cow rearing very well. Then, while inspecting for this purpose, it was also noticed that these women take good care of the three or four cows donated to the institution and talk to them like a close friend and share their grievances with them. I suddenly remembered, during the rehabilitation of ‘Vietnam Veterans’ in America, they were kept in the company of horses for mental stability. The honest, non-artificial love of animals gave them mental healing. Then if the same solution is implemented here as well, it will be used as a psychological treatment for the women patients along with the financial self-reliance of the institution. And then the idea of ​​setting up a dairy for the financial self-sufficiency of Mauli Seva Pratishthan was confirmed. After discussing with seniors and veterans in the club, a general plan was decided.

It was decided to set up a complete system including high quality cows developed by Godrej company, giving 35-40 liters of milk per day, sensors (monitoring system), milking parlour, dung gas plant, and vermiculture plant.
Cow fodder will be grown by the women here in the 3 acres of land of Mauli Pratishthan. For this, the vermiculture prepared using cow dung will be used as organic fertilizer. And daily milk will be added to the milk collection center located 2 km from Mauli. Also, due to dung gas, the expenditure on LPG in the kitchen will also be reduced. Such a self-sustained project was finalized.