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CATTLE-PRESERVATION:
'MUST' FOR INDIA'S AGRICULTURE
*A note presented by
Shree K.
C. Shroff Chairman of Excel Industries for the consideration of the
national-seminar
continued....from
Page 4
The issues of Subsidies:
As a
result of the policies of mechanization, automation and the so
called green revolution followed so far in India, the total
amount of subsidies given by the Central Govt. alone has
increased from about Rs. 1850 crores in 1980-81 to Rs. 12400
crores in 1995-96. The fertiliser subsidies were about Rs.
2500 crores in 1992-93. The ever increasing oil import bill is
playing havoc with both the Balance of Trade and the Balance
in Union Budget. The deficit in Oil Pool Account has reached
an alarmingly high level of Rs. 13000 crores in the year
(1996-97). This is bound to have cascading effect on the
economy. It is next to impossible to reduce these subsidies
significantly unless the cow, cattle, livestock economy is
drastically reformed. The banning of cow slaughter is
crucially essential step towards such a reformation.
One can say this confidently
because the experience in many foreign countries also clearly
shows that he livestock economy that is geared only to the
supply of milk and meat invariably results in the persistent
need for high amounts of subsidies and special assistance
programmes. In Western Industrial Nations, the Government
support for livestock and feed producers runs into billions of
dollars every year. According to the OECD, the Governments in
this member-states provided subsidies to animal farmers and
feed growers to the tune of 120 billion dollars in 1990. Among
the animal products, dairy and beef are the most subsidized.
About 20 percent of the Soviet national budget went for the
food subsidies in 1990, much of it for the animal products.
Among the middle-income developing countries also, the picture
is not much different. The Governments there have supplied
concessional credit, tax breaks, and subsidies to their
livestock industries both to stimulate exports and to satisfy
urban consumers who have been mostly from the middle and upper
income groups. In Costa Rica, nearly 33 percent of all State
financial agriculture credit went to the cattle sector during
1969 to 1985. In Brazil, the Government bestowed at least 600
million dollars in tax credits and 130 million dollars in low
interest loans for ranching during 1966 to 1983. Thus the
livestock industry is invariably propped up by huge amounts of
subsidies everywhere in the world.
The
Issues of Unemployment:
It is argued by some that cow slaughter cannot be banned
because it will lead to unemployment. It is ironical that the
ban on cow slaughter is being opposed on this ground by the
very people whose philosophy and policies have resulted into
the creation of mass unemployment in India during the past
40/50 years. Those who have either actively supported or
acquiesced into both deagriculturlization and
deindustrialization i.e. giving low priority to appropriate
agricultural development. and allowing the death of many
small-scale industries, village and cottage industries,
artisan trades,
etc., putting millions of workers out of gainful and creative
jobs, are now giving lip-service to the cause of unemployment
and are opposing the cow slaughter on that count. Let us look
at the current unemployment situation in India.
The annual average rate
growth of employment during 1970 and 1980 was about 1.95.
Percent against the annual average rate growth of labour force
of 2.0 percent during the same period. The rate of growth of
employment in agriculture has been particularly low at about
0.9 percent per annum during the same period. There has been a
phenomenal growth in the backlog of unemployment in spite of
the introduction of more than twenty different Employment
(*Poverty) Alleviation Programmes on which thousands of crores
of rupees have been spent. The number of job seekers
registered with employment exchanges, which gives only a
partial idea about the acute unemployment situation in the
country, has increased from 18 lacks in 1961 to 3671acks in
1994.
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