‘Buy unproductive cattle at market rates if you ban slaughter’

Fact-finding report on lynchings in Haryana and Rajasthan released by Bhumi Adhikar Andolan

Cows feed in a cattle shed at the Sri Krishna Gaushala on the outskirts of New Delhi, India, on Sunday, Jan. 21, 2018. The nursing home offers free food and lodging, a well-resourced hospital, and 300 attendants to cater to every cow's need. The gaushala, cow shelter, is one of thousands of havens in India for abandoned, sick, and unproductive cows. Their ranks have swelled since Prime Minister Narendra Modis government moved in May to ban the sale of cattle destined for slaughter at animal markets across the country. Photographer: Anindito Mukherjee/Bloomberg

If governments want to ban cattle slaughter or close abattoirs, they must amend cow protection laws to ensure that they purchase the resultant unproductive animals by paying market rates to owners. This is the demand of Left-backed farmers’ organisations in the wake of attacks and lynchings by cow vigilantes.

A fact-finding report on lynchings in Haryana and Rajasthan titled ‘Divide and Rule: In the Name of the Cow’ was released by the Bhumi Adhikar Andolan, a Left-backed forum of over 200 mass movements and farmers’ organisations.

At a time of agrarian crisis, cattle vigilantism is brutal on farming economy, said All-India Kisan Sabha joint secretary Vijoo Krishnan.

“Earlier, in difficult times, farmers would sell unproductive cattle to tide them over. Extra income from dairy production is also important at a time when profits from crops are dwindling,” he said, adding that government restrictions and atmosphere of fear created by gau rakshaks have taken this option away from farmers.

Although the Supreme Court had suspended the nationwide ban on sale of cattle for slaughter last year, the Centre is yet to withdraw the notification, and a majority of States still have curbs of some sort on slaughter of cows and other cattle.

Members of the andolan said that cattle have become a liability and are simply abandoned by owners in this scenario.

The 2012 livestock census pegs the number of stray cattle in the country at almost 53 lakh, a figure that is likely to have increased in the intervening years.

The andolan is also demanding the arrest of culprits responsible for lynchings of Umar Khan, Talim Hussain and Pehlu Khan, grant of ₹1 crore as compensation to families of victims and ban on unlawful gau rakshak organisations.

Members of the fact-finding delegation alleged that Alwar Superintendent of Police Rahul Prakash had justified “ gau rakshak police chowkis” established on the borders of the district as necessary to prevent cow smuggling.

“How can legitimate cattle trading be called smuggling when the Supreme Court itself has lifted the ban,” asked MP K. K. Ragesh, who was part of the fact-finding team.

“When police chowkis are there to protect cows instead of people, the administration is itself implicitly aiding the vigilante groups,” he added.