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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 Page5
The percentage of cultivators
in the total working population has declined from 53 percent
in 1961 to 39 percent in 1991 and the persons employed in
areas related to livestock rearing has declined from 2.3
percent to 2.0 percent during the same period. While the
self-employed and salaried regularly employed people as
percentage of total employment has declined from 77 percent in
1972-73 to 70.0 percent in 1987-88, the casually employed have
increased from 23 percent to 30 percent during the same
period. There is no doubt that this deterioration in the
volume and structure of unemployment has been the direct and
indirect result of the growth policies followed so far, of
which the cow slaughter and export of meat are the integral
part.
While studying the impact of
cow protection on unemployment, there is a need to ask two
questions separately: Firstly, will it create unemployment in
the system as a whole and in the long run? , and secondly,
will it create unemployment in the slaughter and related
industries? The answer to the first question is that due to
direct and indirect spread effects, the cow protection will
help to alleviate, and, in due course, eliminate rather than
aggravate the unemployment situation in the country.
However, it is true that
those who are at present working in the slaughter industry and
allied activities will face the prospect of unemployment. But
this cannot be allowed to be the reason for not banning the
cow slaughter. One is not saying this because one is
unconcerned about the fate of those who would be displaced by
closing the slaughter industry. The people in the slaughter
industry and the proponents of cow slaughter can be cruel, the
opponents of cow slaughter cannot be cruel, it is not a part
of their philosophy. Then what is their justification for
advocating a bane on cow slaughter? They have two-way
justification: one is practical and the other is
philosophical.
Practically speaking, the
unemployment created by banning cow slaughter would be
temporary, since the employment opportunities are bound to
expand once the cow-centered economy is put in its place, the
unemployed will be reabsortred in better jobs. After all, most
of those who are now working in the slaughter Industry were
not always in it. In the Keynesian fashion, somebody may
object to this by saying that "in the long run, all are
dead", what would happen to the displaced persons in the
short-run? The answer to such a question is that till they are
reabsorbed, they should be helped from the National Renewal
Fund which has been recently created. Under the New Economic
Policy introduced in 1991, the Government, the economists, and
the society have accepted the ideas of "exit policy"
and "helping the displaced persons through the National
Renewal Fund". The economists have away accepted that
certain reforms will lead to temporary problems such as
unemployment. The concept of structural unemployment accepts
the reality of temporary unemployment of some people. If these
ideas can be accepted in the name of the abstract slogans of
efficiency, competition; and for making profits, why not do so
in the interests of a far more legitimate and humane cause
namely, the cow protection?
Philosophically, it would be
morally reprehensible not to ban cow slaughter because such a
ban would displace a few hundred butchers and some workers.
The greed for revenue and the wowed up fear of unemployment
have for long led us to allow us to continue with the
activities and trade which have played havoc with the moral
fiber of our society. The liquor industry and trade, State
lotteries, casinos, tourism and hotel ling, are some examples
of such activities. We have descended to the acceptance of
"the Government by gambling and boozing" for earning
revenue and
for providing so called employment. We are opposed to
closing these activities for the fear of loss of revenue and
jobs in spite of the fact that well-researched and
well-documented evidence has clearly shown that they have
destroyed the physical and mental health, the peace, the
culture, the families, and the economic well-being on a vast
scale everywhere in this country. The same logic is being now
applied to the slaughter industry. The time has come to
realize that the distilleries, the liquor shops, the gear
bars, the lottery agencies, the abattoirs or slaughter houses,
and the meat export trade are not the legitimate, dignified, honorable, healthy ways of earning money and providing
employment. We have to cease to build our economy and society
on Adam Smith's tenet that "it is the self- interest of
the baker, the brewer, and butcher which make the economic
system work smoothly". There is nothing culturally and
morally elevating in running the industry and trade which
butchers millions of animals every year. Akin to the words of
john Ruskin, we can say, "Certain treasures and
employment are indeed very very heavy with tears". It is
the dream of some people that man will convert the sword into
the ploughshare. Let us hope that the butcher's knife also
will be converted into the ploughshare sooner than later. >>>
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