Muslims earn "peanuts" from meat business, India on way to become world's largest exporter

A well-known online publication, published from Malegaon, Maharashtra, has claimed in a recent study that Muslims earn "peanuts from animal slaughter in India", and the main gainers in the meat business are Hindu businessmen. Carried out by a team which works for ummid.com, the study says that India is already "on track to become world's largest bovine meat exporter", and the general perception the Muslims have gained from the trade is false.
"It is actually the government and non-Muslims who are benefiting the most from about 4.5 billion US dollar animal slaughter business", the study says, adding, "Except for Allana Sons, a 1969 company which has a major share in frozen meat export from India, and few other smaller players who are Muslims, majority of meat exporters and owners of modern abattoirs, and those associated with other related industries like bone, leather, horn, farmers, transporters, animal blood and other raw materials are mainly non-Muslims."
Contending that this fact has been "acknowledged by Hindutva groups", the study has put a "big question mark" over the statement by Union minister Maneka Gandhi, who has alleged that "revenue earned from the animal slaughter business is used for terrorism". the study comes in the wake of Maharashtra government's ban on bulls, bullocks and calves slaughter, ninth by an Indian state.
Based on interviews with beef traders and organisations working for them and going through the available records and data, the study says, "Animals are purchased in over 95% cases from farmers, majority of them being non-Muslims. Most of the transporters who ferry animals and meat from one place to another before and after slaughter are also not Muslims."
It adds, "Except for direct consumption, where also Muslims and non-Muslims both are at par in terms of taking benefits, in rest all associated business, including meat export, bone crushing and powder industry, leather industry, horn processing industry, blood processing, animal fat and soap industry, except for few exceptions, each one is dominated entirely by non-Muslims."
Giving examples, the study says, "Some prominent names are Arabian Export of Deepak Tijori, Al Kabeer Exports run by Atul Subberwal, Al-Noor Export of Ajay Sud, Mahesh Jagadale and Co, Sujata Bones of MK Deore, Dode Industries, Fine Exports, SK Leather, Ramesh Juneja & Sons, Bharat Leather, Woodland, Raymonds, Datta Soap, BS International, Sixth Sense, Natural Craft, Bounty Fashion Export, Kochhar Brothers, Ravi Exports, Kalia International, and Hindustan Unilever Ltd."
Saying that all them are "engaged in beef and the business of associated raw materials and products", the study points out, "It is also found that some of those associated with the trade have different names and identities for different countries and regions. Like, Al Kabeer is 'Samurai' in Japan, 'Falcon Foods' in the UK, and 'Tayebat Al Emarat' in the UAE. It also owns other brands like Tabarruk, Cascade and Coral Reef."
India became the world's biggest buffalo meat exporter in 2012, ahead of Brazil, says the study, adding, "A report by the US Department of Agriculture says buffaloes are inexpensive to keep. This makes their meat a dollar a kg cheaper than beef. The Indian government has invested heavily in abattoirs. Recently released Ministry of Food Processing data showed that India exported 1.89 million tonnes of beef in 2012-2013, which is a 50 per cent increase over five years ago."
The study further says, "Among Indian states, Uttar Pradesh (UP) has emerged as the biggest exporter of buffalo meat, followed by Punjab and Maharashtra. Besides having the country's largest buffalo population, UP also has the highest number of abattoirs- cum-meat processing export units. The state has 317 registered slaughterhouses and, in addition, 24 export-oriented units for buffalo meat. Of the total Indian carabeef exports, 67% originates from this state."
As for Mumbai in Maharashtra, it has "a distinction of having Deonar abattoir – Asia's largest", the study says adding, "It has a capacity of about 4000 animals and recruit over 1200 people besides 30 medical professionals." As for Gujarat, "projected as a model Hindu state, the trade there has flourished under the kind protection of the state."
Thus, "data compiled by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry from Gujarat's Pollution Control Board reveals that meat production in the State, when Prime Minister Modi was its chief minister, more than doubled in 10 years. It was the time when Modi was taunting the Congress-led UPA of promoting 'Pink Revolution',", the study points out.
"Gujarat produced 22,000 tonnes of meat in 2010-11 against 10,600 tonnes of meat in 2001-02. During the same period, India's meat production grew from 18,59,430 tonnes to 48,69,000 tonnes, or by 163%. With 39 abattoirs, which slaughters over 1,000 animals a day, Gujarat is amongst the top 10 States in India in terms of the number of slaughterhouses", it adds.

Comments

Ahmedabad's civic chaos: Drainage woes, waterlogging, and the illusion of Olympic dreams

In response to my blog on overflowing gutter lines at several spots in Ahmedabad's Vejalpur, a heavily populated area, a close acquaintance informed me that it's not just the middle-class housing societies that are affected by the nuisance. Preeti Das, who lives in a posh locality in what is fashionably called the SoBo area, tells me, "Things are worse in our society, Applewood."

RP Gupta a scapegoat to help Govt of India manage fallout of Adani case in US court?

RP Gupta, a retired 1987-batch IAS officer from the Gujarat cadre, has found himself at the center of a growing controversy. During my tenure as the Times of India correspondent in Gandhinagar (1997–2012), I often interacted with him. He struck me as a straightforward officer, though I never quite understood why he was never appointed to what are supposed to be top-tier departments like industries, energy and petrochemicals, finance, or revenue.

PharmEasy: The only online medical store which revises prices upwards after confirming the order

For senior citizens — especially those without a family support system — ordering medicines online can be a great relief. Shruti and I have been doing this for the last couple of years, and with considerable success. We upload a prescription, receive a verification call from a doctor, and within two or three days, the medicines are delivered to our doorstep.

Powering pollution, heating homes: Why are Delhi residents opposing incineration-based waste management

While going through the 50-odd-page report Burning Waste, Warming Cities? Waste-to-Energy (WTE) Incineration and Urban Heat in Delhi , authored by Chythenyen Devika Kulasekaran of the well-known advocacy group Centre for Financial Accountability, I came across a reference to Sukhdev Vihar — a place where I lived for almost a decade before moving to Moscow in 1986 as the foreign correspondent of the daily Patriot and weekly Link .

Environmental report raises alarm: Sabarmati one of four rivers with nonylphenol contamination

A new report by Toxics Link , an Indian environmental research and advocacy organisation based in New Delhi, in collaboration with the Environmental Defense Fund , a global non-profit headquartered in New York, has raised the alarm that Sabarmati is one of five rivers across India found to contain unacceptable levels of nonylphenol (NP), a chemical linked to "exposure to carcinogenic outcomes, including prostate cancer in men and breast cancer in women."

Dalit rights and political tensions: Why is Mevani at odds with Congress leadership?

While I have known Jignesh Mevani, one of the dozen-odd Congress MLAs from Gujarat, ever since my Gandhinagar days—when he was a young activist aligned with well-known human rights lawyer Mukul Sinha’s organisation, Jan Sangharsh Manch—he became famous following the July 2016 Una Dalit atrocity, in which seven members of a family were brutally assaulted by self-proclaimed cow vigilantes while skinning a dead cow, a traditional occupation among Dalits.

Tracking a lost link: Soviet-era legacy of Gujarati translator Atul Sawani

The other day, I received a message from a well-known activist, Raju Dipti, who runs an NGO called Jeevan Teerth in Koba village, near Gujarat’s capital, Gandhinagar. He was seeking the contact information of Atul Sawani, a translator of Russian books—mainly political and economic—into Gujarati for Progress Publishers during the Soviet era. He wanted to collect and hand over scanned soft copies, or if possible, hard copies, of Soviet books translated into Gujarati to Arvind Gupta, who currently lives in Pune and is undertaking the herculean task of collecting and making public soft copies of Soviet books that are no longer available in the market, both in English and Indian languages.

Boeing 787 under scrutiny again after Ahmedabad crash: Whistleblower warnings resurface

A heart-wrenching tragedy has taken place in Ahmedabad. As widely reported, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner plane crashed shortly after taking off from the city’s airport, currently operated by India’s top tycoon, Gautam Adani. The aircraft was carrying 230 passengers and 12 crew members. As expected, the crash has led to an outpouring of grief across the country. At the same time, there have been demands for the resignation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, and Civil Aviation Minister Venkaiah Naidu. The most striking comment came from BJP MP Subramanian Swamy, who stated : "When a train derailed in the 1950s, Lal Bahadur Shastri resigned. On the same morality, I demand PM Modi, HM Amit Shah, and Civil Aviation Minister Naidu resign so that a free and fair inquiry can be held. All that Modi and his associates have been doing so far is gallivanting, which must stop." Amidst widespread mourning, some fringe elements sought to communalize the tragedy. One post ...

Revisiting Gijubhai: Pioneer of child-centric education and the caste debate

It was Krishna Kumar, the well-known educationist, who I believe first introduced me to the name — Gijubhai Badheka (1885–1939). Hailing from Bhavnagar, known as the cultural capital of the Saurashtra region of Gujarat, Gijubhai, Kumar told me during my student days, made significant contributions to the field of pedagogy — something that hasn't received much attention from India's education mandarins. At that time, Kumar was my tutorial teacher at Kirorimal College, Delhi University.

Search This Blog