By restricting cattle trade, government wants cow bureaucracy
In what is being termed as the beginning of a “cow bureaucracy” in India, the Centre on May 26 has banned the sale of cattle – including cows, buffaloes, calves, heifers, bulls, bullocks and even camels – in animal markets intended for slaughter. It has also imposed fresh restrictions on the sale on animals and has ruled that animal markets cannot be set up within 50 kms of the international border and 25 km of the state borders, as per the gazetted notification.
According to the new rule brought in under the ambit of the Union ministry of environment and forests and as part of the Prevention of Cruelty against Animals Act, 1960, cattle can only be sold to a person who has documents to prove he’s an “agriculturalist”.
New cattle protection rules creates a cow bureaucracy in 21st century. Records to be made in quintuplets pic.twitter.com/pcU3N53D6l
— nitin sethi (@nit_set) May 26, 2017
Environment news today: vulnerable coasts opened up for business interests, tiger habitat to be inundated and a bizarre cattle bureaucracy
— nitin sethi (@nit_set) May 26, 2017
In addition, young and infirm animals cannot be sold in animal markets intended for slaughter, while the sale can only occur after a hefty amount of paperwork aimed at various central and state government departments.
What the ruling says on the new restrictions
The points in the new ruling, the clause 22 of the gazetted notification under the MoEF, concerning the restriction on sale of cattle are:
Restrictions on sale of cattle
The member secretary of the Animal Market Committee shall ensure that:
(a) No person shall bring to an animal market a young animal;
(b) No person shall bring a cattle to an animal market unless upon arrival he has furnished a written declaration signed by the owner of the cattle or his duly authorised agent—
(i) Stating the name and address of the owner of the cattle, with a copy of the photo identification proof;
(ii) Giving details of the identification of the cattle;
(iii) Stating that the cattle has not been brought to market for sale for slaughter;
(c) Every declaration furnished to the Animal Market Committee shall be retained by it for a period of six months from the date on which it is furnished to them and the Animal Market Committee shall, on demand made by an Inspector at any reasonable time during that period, produce such declaration and allow a copy of it or an extract from it to be taken;
(d) Where an animal has been sold and before its removal from the animal market, the Animal Market
Committee shall:
(i) Obtain the expenses incurred for each animal, as approved by the District Animal Market Monitoring Committee, so as to provide the basic facilities for animals and people;
(ii) Take an undertaking that the animals are bought for agriculture purposes and not for slaughter;
(iii) Keep a record of name and address of the purchaser and procure his identity proof;
(iv) Verify that the purchaser is an agriculturist by seeing the relevant revenue document;
(v) Ensure that the purchaser of the animal gives a declaration that he shall not sell the animal up to six months from the date of purchase and shall abide by the rules relating to transport of animals made under the Act or any other law for the time being in force;
(vi) Retain such record for a period of six months from the date of sale;
(vii) Produce such record before an Inspector on demand being made by him at any reasonable time during that period and allow a copy of it or an extract from it to be taken;
(e) The purchaser of the cattle shall:
(i) Not sell the animal for purpose of slaughter;
(ii) Follow the State cattle protection or preservation laws;
(iii) Not sacrifice the animal for any religious purpose;
(iv) Not sell the cattle to a person outside the State without the permission as per the State cattle protection or preservation laws;
(f) where a cattle has been sold and before its removal from the animal market, the proof of sale shall be issued in five copies, out of which first copy shall be handed over to purchaser, second copy to seller, third copy to tehsil office of the residence of purchaser, fourth copy to the Chief Veterinary Officer in the district of purchaser and last copy to be kept intact in the record by the Animal Market Committee.
Who will be hit the hardest?
Firstly, the biggest impact of this new ruling will be on the farmers themselves as they will not be able to sell of their ailing or ageing cattle to the animal markets, thus incurring further losses without any relief. No provision has been provided in this particular ruling to address the grievances of the farmers who will be inevitably distressed once the law comes into effect over the next few months.
Secondly, cattle traders – who buy and sell bovine animals, including cows, calves, bullocks, buffaloes, heifers, camels, oxen, etc – and help keep the cattle population steady, at about 190 million, will be greatly hit. The extreme restrictions on cattle trade, that is purchase and sale of the animals, would shrink the entire cottage industry of middlemen who link farmers to butchers, slaughterhouse owners.
Thirdly, the beef and leather industries, which also happen to be Muslim dominated, will be greatly affected. While the new rules don’t impose a blanket ban on cattle slaughter, they effectively limit the availability of the animals for slaughter by exponentially increasing the red tape. The meat and affiliated industries are worth over Rs one lakh crore annually, employing hundreds of thousands of people, mostly from Muslim and Dalit backgrounds. Inevitably, their livelihoods will be scrapped, or severely shrunk.
Challenging the Centre
The Communist-ruled Kerala has already come forward and declared that it would challenge the ruling and take the Centre to court over the effective near ban on cattle slaughter. The LDF government and chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan have called the rules “undemocratic and unconstitutional”, saying that it’s a violation of citizens’ right to food.
Kerala CM has said: "The Central government's rules on cattle slaughter and trade are part of the Centre's effort to further RSS agenda in the country. India is a country of diverse religions and culture. Pluralism is the essence of our democracy. Various actions of the Centre are against this pluralism. The Sangh parivar unleashed violence in many parts of the country in the name of protesting against cow slaughter. Crores of people in the country slaughter cattle for their right to food."
Cow politics
The spate of lynchings induced by cow vigilantism in BJP-ruled states such as Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, etc and the new surveillance regime over beef ban have together contributed to an extremely vitiated political atmosphere in the country.
The comprehensive nature of the fresh restrictions are surely an assault on meat-eating Indians and can be the stepping stone towards imposing absolute vegetarianism in the country.
In addition, the increased red tape and the making of a cow bureaucracy are going to impose further hurdles on poor and middle-grade farmers, who have been already devastated by a prolonged period of drought and/or dismal monsoon. Is the 21st century India going to be a place where the poor lead a life worse than animals?