Winners of PETA India’s Compassionate Designer Awards Are … JADE’s Monica Shah and Karishma Swali

For Immediate Release:
8 December 2022

Contact:
Hiraj Laljani; [email protected]

Sanskriti Bansore; [email protected]

Mumbai – In recognition of JADE’s Monica Shah and Karishma Swali’s commitment to being leather-free, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India has honoured the duo with a Compassionate Designer Award each. Meanwhile, Vedanta teacher Acharya Prashant has received PETA India’s Most Influential Vegan Award for advocating vegan living, and Maharashtra Additional Director General of Police IPS Dr Ravinder Singal has received PETA India’s Humanitarian Award for promoting dog adoption, cracking down on cases of cruelty to animals, spearheading an initiative to feed community animals during the pandemic, and assisting with a raid on a notorious wildlife smuggler in Nashik.

Photos are available upon request.

This year, JADE, one of the finest couture brands in India, by designers Monica Shah and Karishma Swali, introduced its first vegan accessory line, aptly titled “Made for Love”. The collection of premium accessories is vegan and cruelty-free, PETA-certified, and made without the use of any animal-derived ingredients.

“JADE is testimony to the fact that true luxury means respecting animals and the planet,” says PETA India Manager of Fashion, Media and Celebrity Projects Monica Chopra. “PETA India is delighted to recognise Monica Shah and Karishma Swali for showing compassion is always in fashion.”

The global leather industry kills more than 1.4 billion cows, goats, and sheep – and millions of other sensitive, intelligent animals – each year. Animals used for leather in India are often crammed into vehicles in such large numbers that many are severely injured or die en route. They are then dragged into slaughterhouses, where they are cut open in full view of one another, on floors covered with faeces, blood, guts, and urine.

According to a “Pulse of the Fashion Industry” report published by the Global Fashion Agenda in collaboration with the Boston Consulting Group, leather is the most polluting material in fashion.

Workers in India receive poverty wages for long hours in tanneries, where they’re exposed to lethal chemicals and conditions. Chromium, which is used to treat 90% of the world’s leather, can cause cancer of the lung, bladder, pancreas, kidney, testes, and skin as well as ulcers, nasal septum damage, dermatitis, and respiratory illnesses. According to the World Health Organization, in a leather-tanning region of Bangladesh, 90% of leather workers – many of whom are children – die before the age of 50 as a result of exposure to toxic chemicals at tanneries.

Past recipients of PETA India’s Compassionate Designer Award are Anita Dongre, Purvi Doshi, and Anupama Dayal.

PETA India – whose motto reads, “animals are not ours to experiment on, eat, wear, use for entertainment, or abuse in any other way” – opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETAIndia.com or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

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