What is more precious – Cattle
wealth or Forex?
WHY MEAT
EXPORT SHOULD BE
BANNED?
Read …Understand …Awake…Act
Do you know …
} That
the high inflation is the result of mass scale destruction of our cattle
wealth?
} That
ever increasing prices of foodgrains,
vegetables, milk, ghee etc. is the result of cattle slaughter?
} That
shift from Cattle based agriculture to
Machine based agriculture has put enormous burden on farmers & economy?
} That 16 kgs. of foodgrains are required to
be fed to an animal for formation of 1 kg of meat in its body ... thus
promotion of meat eating itself results in creating shortage of foodgrains?
That cattle slaughter has…
} Increased cost of producing foodgrains
manifold?
} Reduced nutrition in food and increased
chronic diseases?
} Increased pollution & poison in food?
How much the nation can benefit from protection of cattle
wealth?
- Annual
subsidy of Rs.1,30,000 Cr. given for chemical fertilizers & Rs.45,000
Cr. for food can be substantially reduced
- Annual
saving can be generated of Rs.1,81,440 Cr. spent on fuel (Kerosene / Gas)
by 16.80 Cr. families staying in rural India by making them available dung
cakes as fuel
[Assuming
rural population as 84 Cr. People (70% of total population) i.e. 16.80 Cr.
Families (assuming 5 persons in family) spending at least Rs. 10,800/- p.a. on
Kerosene / Gas]
- Huge
saving of forex which is spent on
import of chemical fertilizers, diesel, petrol & other fuels
- Comparing
the calorific value of firewood and dung fuel, one buffalo’s dung can save
6 trees in a year, which are fell for firewood in rural areas!
- Huge
savings in petrol & diesel consumption in rural areas by using cattle
based transportation
- Saving
the fertile land of the country from becoming barren lands due to
replacement of dung manure by chemical fertilizers
- Saving
about six lacs decentralized wealth generating, self-sufficient centres
viz. villages, revolving around agriculture and Animal Husbandry related
village industries.
Can
cattle based economy control Inflation &
Rising prices? …Yes
- By
keeping cost of producing food grains to very low level
- By
using freely available dung for organic manure in place of costly chemical
fertilizers
- By
using bullocks for ploughing farms in place of diesel driven tractors
- By
using cattle based mode of transportation in place of petrol / diesel
driven vehicles
- By
using freely available cattle urine in place of costly & poisonous
pesticides
- By
using freely available dung cakes for fuel in rural areas in place of
costly fuels like kerosene, Gas etc.
- By
using freely available dung ash for cleaning utensils in place of costly
detergent powders
- By
using freely available dung to be used as one of the input for housing in
place of costly cement in rural areas
- By
making available nutritious fresh milk & pure ghee at low cost
- By
making available Panchgavya for cheaper & effective ayurvedic
medicines in place of costly allopathic medicines
MEAT EXPORT POLICY - HOW IT ORIGINATED?
- There
was a serious problem of Foreign Exchange Reserve in the year 1991-92…
- Country’s
gold reserves had to be mortgaged, endangering national pride….
- Government
was looking for all possible avenues to earn foreign exchange
- And
identified MEAT EXPORT as one of the thrust areas…
WHAT’S WRONG WITH MEAT EXPORT POLICY? ……
Everything !
- It’s
a policy framed under influence of
western ideas having widely different culture where …
• Cattle is considered to be a commodity
• And
objective of cattle rearing is to
extract milk as long as possible & then meat by slaughtering it.
Whereas in India…
• Cattle is considered to be a family member
• And objective
of cattle rearing is to get dung, urine, bullocks & Milk (in that order !)
- Meat export violates many
Constitutional provisions.
- Meat exporters are only in Private
Sector and they are swayed by
personal profits in view of enormous earnings involved
- No co-ordination amongst the three
Ministries involved with the subject of meat export viz.
• Ministry of Commerce, which
decides the list of items of export
• Ministry of Food Processing industries,
which facilitates setting up private sector slaughter houses and gives
financial support for meat export. Export of meat is eligible for 13 types of subsidies
running into hundreds of crores of rupees
• Animal Husbandry Department of
Agriculture Ministry, which monitors animal population and frames
policies resulting in more and more slaughter
5. Absence of any monitoring mechanism to
examine availability of slaughterable animals vis-à-vis slaughter capacity
created in the country as a whole, both for local consumption and for exports.
- Higher & higher targets for meat
exports are set in view of meat export being considered as thrust
area. Even a Meat Board is set up at the Central level.
- No central law to protect useful
animals.
- Different state laws have different
provisions regarding age of slaughterable animals rendering these laws
ineffective, when animals cross from one state to the other.
- Inherent contradiction prevailing
in view of International standards for meat requiring slaughter of
young & healthy animals, whereas local laws prohibit slaughter of
young & healthy animals. Obviously, breach of law prevails.
- Having exhausted local animals,
most of the export-oriented slaughter houses located in South India
procure animals from as far flung
areas as HP, Haryana, Punjab, UP, MP etc. Thus, each exporter
considers entire country as his hinterland for procuring animals.
- In
short it is a situation like
`free for all’.
- There
is no serious and independent or
impartial study of the impact of this policy on various aspects of
economy.
WHY MEAT EXPORT POLICY SHOULD BE SCRAPPED?
1.
Government’s
own arms have recommended ban on meat export:
I.
Animal
Welfare Board of India in its 67th Executive Committee Meeting, in April 1994.
II.
Law
Commission of India in its 159th Report in July, 1998.
III.
National
Commission on Cattle in its report in the year 2001.
- Should we stick to the policy framed
in 1991 even if the
circumstances have changed? Note that ….
a) Forex reserves position in 1991-92 was
precarious!
Whereas forex reserves position in June
2013 is US$ 288 bn. i.e. Rs.17,28,000 crores!
b) Meat export earns hardly Rs.14,000
crores p.a. which is just 0.8% of total forex reserve and 1% of our total yearly exports.
c)
When
several other sectors given below have emerged as major foreign exchange
earners, why to continue meat export?
IT
Sector Rs.4,54,800 Crores
Gem & Jwellery Rs.2,35,000
Crores
Textiles Rs.1,00,000 Crores
Engineering Rs.1,00,000 Crores
etc.
d) There
is growing awareness about organic
food all over the world. India can
become a major exporter of organic food if it preserves its animals and
uses their dung as organic manure.
Higher revenue from export of organic food can offset earnings from meat
export manifold.
e)
Note
the following data …
• India exported roughly 16.80 lakh M.T. of
buffalo meat in 2011-12. (it would be more in subsequent years)
• Considering
average meat yield from a buffalo to be 110 kg., 152 lakh buffaloes were slaughtered in 2011-12 for export only.
• A buffalo yields 5.4 M.T. dung in a year,
which when composted gives 10.8 M.T. of organic manure.
•
By slaughter of 152 lakh
buffaloes, the country is losing 82.08 crore tons of organic manure available
from slaughtered buffaloes during five years they would have lived if not
slaughtered at average age of 10 years.
• Considering
cost of organic manure @ Rs.1,000/- per
ton, the value of 82.08 crore tons of organic manure will be Rs.82,080 crores over a 5 year period.
• In
view of mass scale slaughter of animals, there is drastic fall in animal to human ratio as under:
Though beef has been on negative
list of export, under the garb of meat, thousands of tons of beef is also
exported. The dwindling ratio of cattle despite total ban on female cow
slaughter and partial ban on bulls and bullocks almost throughout the country
proves this doubt.
- There
is country wide resentment against this Policy.
- Meat export violates many
Constitutional provisions.
- Meat export caters to the need of
other countries at the cost of our
young and healthy animals.
- The acute shortage of useful animals
has by and large affected the availability & prices of essential
commodities such as foodgrains, vegetables, fruits, fresh milk, pure
ghee etc.
- If earning a few crumbs of
foreign exchange is the only criteria, then any and every living creature
which can yield profits is liable to be slaughtered and exported. This is a very dangerous trend.
Let us Awake, Arise & Ask…
- Can western policies be made
applicable to Indian conditions & culture where the basic
objective of rearing cattle widely differs?
- Obvious
questions that arise are …
- How the government can frame policies
which are not in the interest of Indian people, breaking backbone of
Indian agriculture?
- Whose interest is being
taken care of? Ours or foreigners’?
3. Can the Nation’s cattle wealth be frittered
away to cater to the economic ambitions of a few or to earn small foreign
exchange?
- Whose interest weighs
higher – that of a handful of meat exporters? Or that of the entire
country?
- Can the Government formulate a policy
which violates fundamental duties
under the Constitution to have compassion for all living creatures?
- Can the freedom of
occupation itself give rise to freedom to kill any animal? Any number of
animals?
- Can the government, which
has to be a role model for
observing fundamental duties, be seen as the violator of fundamental
duties?
Food for thought
- Can production of meat, fish, etc. & killing of
animals be termed as ‘farming’ and included under ‘agriculture’?
- Can meat production enjoy all the
benefits provided by Government to agriculture sector?
APPEAL ….
. . .To the Government
Taking holistic view of the whole
situation, we appeal to the government to scrap the meat export policy…
.
. . And to the people of this country
Oppose
the Meat Export Policy tooth and nail and do not rest till Meat Export is
banned.
SOURCE
-
Viniyog Parivar Trust
email :
info@viniyogparivar.org
