Karnataka: Mahendra Jain protects cows, helps HIV patients

Bengaluru: Talk of cow protection, blood donation or  support for people living with HIV and the name of Mahendra Munnot Jain, 49, immediately pops up in circles familiar with social work. Although born and brought up in Rajasthan, Mr Jain has made Karnataka is home and is  well known for his charitable work and  promoting Kannada and culture.   

Deeply religious , he tries to follow the preachings of Bhagavan Mahaveer in everything he does.  Having done his primary and secondary education in a government school in the Lambiya village of Rajasthan, he moved to Bengaluru in 1982 to work in Ganesh Gandhi Medicals on Magadi Road.  Six years later he started his own medical store, Maruthi Medicals in Vijayanagar and with it began his charity work.

To begin with he held like free health and blood donation camps and provided free medicines to the poor, people living with HIV and the  handicapped.

Upset by the rejection of  the Cow Protection Bill, he launched a cow protection movement through holding awareness programmes, and distributing  books on the subject.  For his troubles, he was brutally attacked on October 2, 2014 in Gangondanahalli.  But undeterred, he later published a book on the cow titled Kamadhenu and distributed 90,000 copies of it. Today, his Maruthi Medicals runs an ambulance for animals and cows injured in road accidents.

A passionate Kannada activist, he has produced several short films and films in the language  and distributes lakhs of textbooks and notebooks  to thousands of students across the state along with noted Kannada historian Dr. M Chidananda Murthy.

His work has fetched him the  Naada Prabhu Kempegowda award of the state government (2014),  the Rajeev Gandhi award, the Jalagoan, Acharya Hasti  Amisha award and the Rajasthana Gaurav award instituted by the Karnataka Rajasthan Samaj.