Agra:

If you are among those who swear by cow urine and dung products, October will put more choice at your fingertips. A small RSS-backed pharmacy is bringing dozens of its natural cosmetics and medicinal products—most of them imbued with “gau goodness”—to Amazon. After luxuriating in cow dung soap lather, you will also have a choice of their “Modi” and “Yogi” kurtas to pull on.

Deen Dayal Dham, a centre run by the RSS at Farah in Mathura, will initially sell 30-odd personal care and “therapeutic” products, such as the digestive Kamdhenu Ark, online. Its tailoring unit will sell 10 styles of apparel, including kurtas and jackets.

RSS spokesperson Arun Kumar said the purpose of selling Dham’s products online was to create jobs for locals.

At present, Deen Dayal Dham sells products worth Rs 4 lakh a month

‘No synthetic chemicals used in our products’

If sales take off online, production and jobs will need to be increased, he said. At present, the Dham sells personal care and medicinal products worth more than Rs 1 lakh and apparel worth Rs 3 lakh every month.

Manish Gupta, deputy secretary of the Dham, told TOI, “Products of our Kamdhenu line that have cow urine among the main ingredients, and kurtas and other khadi products will be available on Amazon soon.” Besides Kamdhenu Ark, which is made from cow urine and aniseed (saunf), the Dham’s Deen Dayal Kamdhenu Gaushala Pharmacy makes products such as Ghanvati, a tonic containing pepper, amla and tulsi, Kamdhenu Madhunashak Chur for diabetes and obesity, Shoolhar oil for sprains and arthritis, shampoo, bath soaps, face pack, and toothpaste.

Gupta said cow urine and dung were the base for their soaps, face packs and incense, and no synthetic chemicals are used. “We collect urine and dung from the cows in our shed and use them in the products as per the formulation.” With just 10 workers and 90 cows and calves, the pharmacy works on a small scale at present. In 2015, it sold 700kg chyawanprash, increasing it to 1,200kg next year. Although the products are only sold at the Dham or in RSS camps, “all of them are sold out much before the end of the year”, Ramgopal, one of the workers, said.

Dham director Rajendra, who goes by his first name, told TOI that they were ready to scale up production with increasing demand. “We expect high demand for cow urine products from online customers,” he said.

All of the Dham’s products are priced between Rs 10 and Rs 230. Even the “Modi” and “Yogi” kurtas cost only Rs 220 apiece. Gupta said the Modi kurtas were longer than the saffrononly Yogi version, and will be available in several colours. The tailoring centre is also a small one with 50 workers, mostly women, who earn Rs 120 a day for stitching two pairs of trousers.