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Cattle slaughter crackdown ripples through India’s leather industry
 [DAWN] In the backstreets of Agra’s Moslem quarter, where shoes have been made for centuries, small-scale manufacturers are firing workers and families cutting back on spending as a government crackdown on cattle slaughter ripples through the community.The election of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) three years ago has emboldened right-wing Hindu groups to push harder for protection of the cow, an animal they consider sacred. Authorities in India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, started closing down unlicenced abattoirs in March, immediately hitting production and sales in the Moslem-dominated meat industry. Last month Modi’s government also banned trading cattle for slaughter, including not just cows, whose killing was already outlawed in most states, but also buffalo, an animal used for meat and leather. Now the squeeze is spreading to others in the Moslem minority and to lower-caste Hindus who cart cattle, labour in tanneries and make shoes, bags and belts -- including for big name brands such as Zara and Clarks. Frequent attacks by right-wing Hindus against workers they accuse of harming cattle have further rattled the industry. Posted by: Fred 2017-06-16 |
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