The Haryana government has imposed a ban on cattle slaughter
through a legislation. Any offender would be prosecuted with a jail term
extending up to 10 years. Earlier the Maharashtra government had passed a
similar law to this effect.
The father of the nation Mahatma Gandhi said “The greatness
of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are
treated.” The slaughtering of animals of any kind is widely condemned by
several animal-rights groups in India. India is a land of great stalwarts like
Buddha who condemned violence to living entities. The decision of the
government prohibiting cattle-slaughter is therefore laudable to a certain
extent.
However, the economic and cultural aspects cannot be outrightly
overlooked.It is customary for a farmer to sell his cattle to a slaughter
house, once the cattle outlives its economic use. As the cattle stops producing
milk and becomes too old to plough, the farmer is left with no option but to
earn money by selling its meat. Most of the farmers, who take to livestock
farming as a means of livelihood, domesticate cattle knowing very well that
they could sell their cattle in times of exigencies.
Culturally, cattle meat(particularly beef-meat) is a
preferred source of food for not only the religious minorities, but also poor
Hindus and adivasis(or tribals). It is a cheap protein-source for a major chunk of the people
residing in South-India or the north-eastern part of India.
If at all there is prohibition on cattle-slaughter, the government would do well to explore alternative job opportunities for the people domesticating cattle. Also the government may think of managing the large number of abandoned cattle, rather than leaving to fend for itself. This would reduce the farmer’s hardships in the event of the cattle becoming unproductive. I would personally favour strict regulation on animal-slaughter rather than outright ban through legal measures.
If at all there is prohibition on cattle-slaughter, the government would do well to explore alternative job opportunities for the people domesticating cattle. Also the government may think of managing the large number of abandoned cattle, rather than leaving to fend for itself. This would reduce the farmer’s hardships in the event of the cattle becoming unproductive. I would personally favour strict regulation on animal-slaughter rather than outright ban through legal measures.
I would like to present 2 scenarios in this regard,
ReplyDelete1. Socio-economic scenario: India is 1st in the world in meat export with 1.68 million metric tonnes. Slaughter houses have their own grazing grounds and killing machines. If each cattle weighs an average of 200kg, and 62% efficient meat, the number of cows being slaughtered in India is staggering 135 million each year(these are just export number, apart from same number of cattles being slaughtered for domestic use), from just 5 states. In India, cattle slaughter takes place, when it reaches the age of 15, by law. Now, from WHO figures, to get 0.5kg of meat, 9000 lts of water has to be used, which can feed one person for one time. But if we use same water for growing wheat, It can serve a person 3 times a day, for 21.5 days. (Calculation is based on the per-capita wheat consumption - 2014 and Population census-2013).There would be no poor, if we strongly adhere to ban of slaughter houses. Another
calculation (The Gaurdian) suggests that, If we chose to avoid meat for one time, we save more water than we would have saved by not taking bath for 6 months. Moreover, Most of the profit is enjoyed by so called "The big Slaughter Houses". There is hardly any involvement of farmers in this entire process. If some luckily farmers gets to be part of this, they get less than 1/10th of the total profit, and that number is negligible.
2. Cultural and ethical Scenario: U have explained nicely about the principles of great people about cow protection. Cow, everymorning feeds us with her delicious, healthy milk for each of us(almost). So she becomes all of our mother. Its highly unlikely that we wish to discard our own bilogical mother, just because she stops breast feeding us. So why cattles? I think its our responsibility to care for her at her old age and make her easy to pass from this world. Even in Bhagavad-gita, cow protection is
explained in-depth.
I think, Whether the issue is socio-economic or cultural, both the ways its logical to protect our mother cow from the act of terror.