The Cattle Protection Bill

THE Cattle and Milk Protection Bill of which Pandit Sham Lal Nehru, MLA (Swarajist), has given notice will, if passed by the Assembly, go a long way to ameliorate the condition of small peasant proprietors and effectually reduce the rate of infant mortality in India. The importance of such a measure in a country like ours cannot be exaggerated. As the preamble to the Bill states, the prices of agriculturist cattle and milk have gone up abnormally on account of shortage of cattle due in no small measure to the overseas trade in dry meat, as a result of which the agriculturist has to undergo hardships and sufferings and babies have to go without milk, suffer pangs of hunger and agonies of premature death. According to the figures collected by Nehru, as many as 42 lakh head of cattle are slaughtered every year in India, of which no less than 32 lakh are put to death simply to supply dry meat to foreign countries. The prevalence of the dry meat trade in this country, it will thus be seen, is depriving children of their proper share of milk and the poor peasant of a cheap factor of cultivation and is consequently reducing the vitality of the Indian people and the productivity of the Indian soil. The problem of cow slaughter in India is unfortunately mixed up with the real or supposed religious duties of an important section of the people. The result is that all resolutions so far brought forward by non-Mahomedans in various local bodies for restricting the slaughter of cows have been vehemently opposed by representatives of the Mahomedan community.

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