Open letter raises concern about ‘irrational attacks on food habits and nutrition rights of citizens’

A gaggle of 112 like-minded residents, together with medical doctors, nutritionists, advocates, researchers aside from six organisations, have written an open letter elevating issues concerning the current ‘irrational assaults on the meals habits and diet rights of residents’. The group is planning to submit the letter to Union Ministries of Health and Family Welfare, Women and Child Welfare in addition to the Prime Minister’s Office.

Asserting that varied legal guidelines, bans and calls to boycott the sale and consumption of meat are affecting the diet and well-being of individuals, the group has stated that analysis has proven that consuming animal supply meals is a vital technique of addressing India’s evident dietary deficiencies.

“The present authorities on the Centre, its right-wing foot soldier brigade, complicit judiciary and police have gone on a spree of ousting all animal supply meals aside from dairy from the plate of the common Indian.  This can have far-reaching, typically irreversible antagonistic outcomes,” the letter said.

“Calls to ban meat retailers are spreading throughout the nation.  On April 1, 2022, a requirement was made to shut all meat retailers for 9 days throughout Navratri in Uttar Pradesh (U.P.), with these refusing to conform being threatened that their retailers could be bulldozed. There have been earlier cases of concentrating on meat retailers in U.P., and likewise in different States corresponding to Jharkhand and Karnataka, however the harassment has dramatically intensified in current weeks,” the letter said.

Cattle slaughter legal guidelines

“Stringent cattle slaughter bans in a number of States have turned a professional commerce that sustained the livelihood of hundreds into an criminal activity, making these teams susceptible to police heavy-handedness, authorized quagmires and financial destitution. Cattle slaughter bans have additionally adversely affected all those that rely on the cattle commerce and dealt a debilitating blow to the livestock, leather-based and meat financial system,” the letter said.

Pointing out that the current occasions in Karnataka have taken this harassment to new heights, the letter stated: “It comes at a time when Muslims throughout Karnataka have been on the receiving finish of assorted bans known as for by right-wing teams, including to the rising polarisation within the southern State beneath the BJP authorities.

“Since March 2022, there have been campaigns by a Hindu right-wing group in Karnataka towards the acquisition of halal meat, fuelling the already rising communal tensions within the State. The identical group has demanded that non-Hindus shouldn’t be allowed to arrange retailers close to temples that come beneath the Muzrai division. Residents of districts like Chikkamagaluru, Dakshina Kannada, and even Bengaluru, witnessed communally charged incidents as right-wing teams proceed to impose restrictions on Muslim merchants, including to tensions within the State.”

Veena Shatruga, former scientist on the National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad, who’s one amongst those that have endorsed the letter, stated requires bans and boycotts have an effect on many communities which are already on the financial brink. “We had been pushed to the wall to return out with this letter. Every day, the governments have been tightening their grip over sure communities, and have been concentrating on minority and Dalit communities. Most of the folks engaged in essentially the most menial of occupations throughout the livestock sector belong to the Dalit group, and have been direly hit by cattle slaughter bans,” she stated.

Eggs and politics

“Although the politics round beef and even meat is well-known, eggs have been denied in noon meals and anganwadis in 14 out of 19 BJP majority States apart from a number of different States. In many of those States (e.g. Chhattisgarh, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh), persistent calls for for introducing eggs in noon meals have been vociferously resisted by privileged or higher caste vegetarian minorities. In Madhya Pradesh, their opposition didn’t even enable eggs to be served in three Adivasi-dominated districts on a pilot foundation,” said the letter.

“Recently, the federal government of Karnataka broke this jinx with a welcome albeit completely insufficient choice (in November 2021) to introduce eggs in noon meals, a long-pending demand from youngsters, mother and father, nutritionists, medical doctors and activists – however solely in seven districts.  Objections have been raised by non secular teams who had prevented an identical  try in 2015, their argument being that conventional consuming practices shouldn’t be tampered with and that the imposition of eggs on vegetarian youngsters, when there are vegetarian options, is discriminatory. This argument is ridiculous on a number of counts,” the letter said.

Sylvia Karpagam, public well being physician and researcher, who’s a part of the group, stated there’s an pressing have to counter the rising tradition of intolerance in direction of peoples conventional consuming practices. “We want to carry the federal government accountable for criminalising conventional meals. Pushing solely cereals and millets shouldn’t be good diet science,” she stated.

Mumbai-based advocate Lara Jesani, who has additionally endorsed the letter, stated this tradition of interfering in folks’s selection of meals and livelihood could have severe social, financial and dietary penalties if not countered. “The COVID-19 pandemic has made it all of the extra necessary to cater to the dietary wants of individuals. The statistics on diet in India are abysmal,” she identified.