By Anita Joshua
New Delhi: Peasants have flagged an issue that has been overshadowed by the meat debate: the impact of the new livestock market rules on the livelihoods of millions of farmers and leather workers.
The All India Kisan Sabha (farmers’ council), the peasants’ wing of the CPM, has decided to petition the Supreme Court against the new rules banning cattle sale for slaughter at animal markets.
One farmer from every state and Union territory will be made a co-petitioner to underscore the wide-ranging impact of the rules, reports telegraphindia.com.
“Many who live off the cattle economy constitute the poorest among the peasantry. They will be the hardest hit,” said Sabha general secretary Hannan Mollah.
He said that animal husbandry accounted for 7.65 percent of the GDP (gross domestic product) and 26 percent of the agrarian GDP.
Sabha official and former Marxist legislator P.K. Krishnaprasad said the curbs have demolished the bargaining capacity of small and marginal farmers, who earlier sold their non-productive cattle in the market and bought younger animals with the cash. They would now have to sell locally.
“The Union finance minister says there is no nationwide ban on cattle slaughter but the amended rules have made sale of cattle for slaughter virtually impossible,” Krishnaprasad said.
“First you create a climate where vigilantes make the cattle business difficult and then you close the avenues for their sale. For a farmer, his cattle are his insurance policy, which he redeems in a crunch situation,” he added.