Even as the southern Indian state of Kerala explores legal avenues to fight a federal notification banning the sale of unproductive cattle for slaughter, it is time for the Indian government to introspectively look at the scope of such a sweeping decision.
Under the tough new notification issued last week, the government ordered that no cows or buffaloes could be traded at a livestock market without a signed declaration by the owner that the animal was not being sold for slaughter. Further, anyone buying livestock would have to present a document showing that he or she was an “agriculturalist”. While any law aimed at protecting the fledgling rights of animals in India is a welcome step, such legislation cannot be designed to infringe upon the basic right of every citizen to their choice of food and diet in a pluralistic and secular democracy such as India.
The new rule also imposes a new layer of bureaucracy on poorly-educated cattle traders, who now must produce such documented evidence as listed above to sell their livestock. Beef happens to be one of the cheapest sources of protein in India — and the burgeoning meat trade market in the country is worth $4 billion (Dh14.7 billion) and helps sustain millions of lives. It has been an age-old practice for a majority of farmers to sell their ageing and unproductive cattle for slaughter, typically to avoid the expense of maintaining an unproductive animal. The new rule explicitly deals such a segment of farmers a major financial blow.
Viewed in its entirety, the stringent ‘Prevention of Cruelty to Animals [Regulation of Livestock Markets] Rules, 2017’ reads like a piece of anachronism that will end up hurting India much more than benefiting its society. The government must therefore act now to review the legislation and prevent the inevitable damage it will cause to the secular fabric of India.
