The Big Story: Questionable timing

The Animal Welfare Board of India has decided to launch a campaign against animal sacrifice ahead of Bakrid, which will be celebrated by Muslims on August 21. The festival, known in Arabic as Eid-al-Adha or Festival of Sacrifice, is traditionally observed with the slaughter of an animal. But the animal board chairman SP Gupta said that sacrifices are “not a religious thing...In no religion can you kill animals”.

Gupta said that if state governments fail to act against people who sacrifice animals, the board would step forward to lodge complaints and move the courts. But though the board has positioned its campaign as an attempt to enforce the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, the timing of the initiative is questionable, as is the substance of Gupta’s contention.

To begin with, animal sacrifices are an intrinsic part of religious practice in India. Across the country, thousands of animals are sacrificed in Hindu temples every day. Recognising this, Section 28 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act expressly states that “nothing contained in this Act shall render it an offence to kill any animal in a manner required by the religion of any community”.

The Supreme Court has repeatedly held that rituals vital for the existence of a religion have to be protected from legal intervention and come under the freedom of religion guaranteed under Article 25 of the Constitution. But traditional sports like jallikattu – the bull wrestling sport in Tamil Nadu – are facing legal challenges because they do not have the protection of religion.

Of course, the government does have the power to regulate sacrifices. For example, the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act and the Food Safety and Standards Act mandate that animals should be slaughtered only at licensed abattoirs and have set guidelines to minimise pain for the animal. Many Indian Muslims have been urging community members to regulate Bakrid sacrifices. Some religious leaders have asked their followers not to inconvenience other members of the public by killing animals on the roads or in public places.

But here lies the problem. India lacks an adequate number of slaughtering houses to effectively implement these legal provisions. Last year, the government informed the Lok Sabha that there are about 1,700 slaughterhouses in the whole of country. For a country of 1.3 billion people, this is grossly inadequate.

Rather than targeting a Muslim ritual just ahead of a festival, the Animal Welfare Board should look to put pressure on the government to open more slaughter houses so that the rules can be effectively implemented.

Punditry

  1.   It’s time to debate the modalities of the next Census, given the earlier confusion over caste data, argues Sonalde Desai in The Hindu. 
  2.   While there has been no improvement in either overall trade volumes or values, costs have gone up for emerging and poor economies due to shrinking trade finance, writes Rajrishi Singhal in Mint. 
  3.   You can’t be a champion of women and children if you don’t champion women and children, says Maureen Dowd in New York Times on the failure of Ivanka Trump to influence Donald Trump for a better immigration policy.   

Giggles

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