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The post COVID-19 lockdown has brought out the worst of vested interests. While corporates are scrambling to acquire land and assets by blatantly pushing the government to tweak or do away with protective legal mechanisms, the government is making decisions that will have adverse and long-term social, nutritional, health and economic consequences.
One of them is the anti-cow slaughter Bill, which the Karnataka government has passed with great urgency, without even a pretence at the due process of democratic consultation, particularly with those who will be the most disaffected by this law. Any reasonable, fairly intelligent voter of the state should challenge this Bill, which is neither evidence-based nor rational, and viewed in the backdrop of the following issues.
Karnataka has dismal indicators when it comes to nutrition. According to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 4th round (2015), 39 percent children, especially those from the Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) communities, are stunted (less height for age) while 40 percent are undernourished (less weight for age). Anemia is found in 56 percent of the children before starting their school life at six years.
Even prior to the lockdown, Karnataka had an unstable mid-day meal scheme, in spite of this being a legally mandated right of every child going to government or government-aided schools under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013. The scheme was already teetering under centralised contracts to Akshaya Patra which seems to be constantly lumbering through large-scale fraud, conflict of interest, pilferage, religious indoctrination and failure to abide by fairly straightforward norms.
The state-supported Ksheera Bhagya scheme, which provided 150 ml of hot milk to school-going children, was also summarily stopped June 2020 onwards. It is also to be noted that nutritionally superior eggs had been denied to children as part of the MDM only on the pretext that “they were already being given milk".
It is in this backdrop of dire nutritional crisis that the anti-cow slaughter Bill should be viewed. 15 percent (or 180 million) Indians consume beef. This includes Dalits, Muslims, Christians, Other Backward castes (OBCs) and Adivasis. Beef is one of the cheapest sources of animal foods, and a kilogram costs about Rs 250 compared to mutton which is about Rs 800/kg.
Organ meat is even cheaper. It is also nutritionally dense. In fact, the grass-fed Indian beef is a much sought-after in other countries because it is lean, unlike the stall-fed cattle.
Beef has several nutrients as listed below:
In Indian villages, one cow, when killed, can feed many families over days, especially when dried or pickled. While banning cow slaughter in one fell swoop, has the government made alternative arrangements for these families? Are they somehow of lesser consequence than the cows of the state? It is no coincidence that it is these very same communities that will be targeted by brutal lynch mobs.
Beef is a nutritionally superior food, with beef liver scoring even higher. For a child, a meal with beef in it is a treat. For a mother, it’s a child who has eaten a full meal. For a nutritionist, it is a nutritionally dense meal. For a doctor, it means better immunity, lesser malnutrition, fewer infections and lesser mortality. For the BJP, however, it is nothing more than vote bank politics. For the vapid elite of the state, it is nothing more than an armchair discussion. Elite ‘vegetarians’ can tut tut over their palak paneers and curd rice while bemoaning how people should ‘respect the law’.
What is a law, if it criminalises people’s nutritional rights and paves the way for unscrupulous lynch mobs to target some of the most vulnerable communities? Does social fabric, justice, fraternity, equality matter in Karnataka or do ‘rights’ vary based on one’s class, caste and religious location?
(Sylvia Karpagam is a public health doctor and researcher. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)
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Published: 11 Dec 2020,04:40 PM IST