At a time when the Delhi Government should channelize all its energy and resources towards pollution control and large-scale testing to detect and isolate the super spreaders of Covid-19, it comes up with yet another futile and superfluous order, “The slaughter Policy.”
What does the Policy state?
The South Delhi Municipal Corporation, a BJP ruled civic body passed a proposal to direct meat shops, restaurants, hotels and eateries. The Policy makes it mandatory for all
restaurants and hotels to explicitly mention by way of a notice, the method of meat
preparation in their kitchens, namely Halal or Jhatka.
What is Halal and jhatka meat?
Halal the method of preparation is related to meat
being prepared as per the Muslim law, in which the animal is kept alive and healthy
at the time of slaughter. In contrast, the Jhatka Method is employed to slaughter
the animal in a single blow.
What makes the policy futile?
Most restaurants in Delhi and all over India already mention
whether the meat is halal or jhatka, thereby respecting the sentiments of those
who follow the practices and abstain from eating the other type. The problem
arises when people who don’t mind any method of preparation, but putting a
notice attracts their attention to the same and may result in the loss of business
for the restaurant and eateries who are barely managing to break-even.
At a time when the hotel industry is recovering from a massive setback, and is still recovering from the shock of the pandemic, this law only exacerbates the situation.
The meat industry is a vital and an ever-growing sector that serves as a source of employment for several butchers who may or may not follow the ways of halal/jhatka. Thus, the policy seems to pit the later with the former and aims to yet again make this a communal issue.
The fact that the government is communalizing food at the time when it should make it a robust sector with added initiatives owing to the peak of malnutrition that India is at the forefront of, is absolutely irrational and just a way of diverting attention from the larger problems that our country is faced with.
Written by- Tushna Choksey
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