Soon, cows will have their own Aadhaar number: What you should know

Cow slaughter in India is a monstrous crime under the current regime

Soon, cows will also have their own Aadhaar number.  On Monday, Narendra Modi-led NDA government informed the Supreme Court of India a unique identification number for animals has been suggested by an expert panel to track cattle.

Each animal has to be tagged with a unique identification number with proper records of identification details like age, breed, sex, lactation, height, body colour, horn type, tail switch and special marks.

The recommendations were placed before a bench of Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justice D Y Chandrachud which listed the PIL filed by Akhil Bharat Krishi Gosewa Sangh for passing directions by considering these recommendations. The committee, set up in pursuance of the court order, has recommended having tamper-proof identification of cattle by using polyurethane tags and a state-level data base may be uploaded to a website which may be linked with a national online database.

According to a Times of India report, the cattle may be in a dairy, kanji house (shelter home) or dry dairy and a registration card has to be maintained by the owner of the cattle which may be transferred to the next owner, in case legitimate sale/transfer takes place."

How will Aadhaar for cows help India?

According to Centre, this will stop trafficking of cattle across the Indo-Bangla border. It also includes concern over smuggling of cattle to Nepal for being sacrificed at the Gadhimai festival, held once in five years.

A high-level-inter-ministerial committee said, "the Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act read with Export Import Policy (Exim policy) of India mandates that cattle can only be exported from the country with a valid licence from the regional licensing authority."

"In order to check the smuggling of livestock across India's borders, there may be strict enforcement of the EXIM policy by the relevant customs authorities, transport department, police and border guarding forces as per the law," it recommended.

Bangladeshi cattle markets are full of cattle illegally smuggled from India. India Today reports traders at these markets admit that demand for Indian beef is high and the scaling down of smuggling activity has only served to push the prices up.

"There is a slump in the volume after the (Narendra) Modi government came to power, but cows and oxen still reach here from villages of Haryana, Rajasthan and even Maharashtra," Mohammed Rehan, who works at Gabtole, one of the biggest cattle market of Bangladesh, a 13km drive from Capital Dhaka told India Today. "On an average, around 3,000 cattle make it to Gabtole daily from India and Nepal. The prices have now gone up due to higher risk and bribe rates."
 

Cruelty to cows

Through unique identification, care may be taken to check the manner in which the cows are being transported to prevent cruelty metted out towards them.
 

"The compliance of the order would entail making a uniform act for cow preservation and protection in India. This will certainly help in reducing grey areas and ensuring implementation to a better extent," the panel said. 

Business Standard had earlier reported that the Union government is seeking such a tag for cattle so that they can be vaccinated on time and scientific intervention is available. 

BJP's politics over religion

Commenting on the Centre's decision to extend Aadhaar-like unique identification (UID) to cattle in order to check cow smuggling, the Congress on Tuesday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party playing politics over religion.

"The BJP is playing politics on religion so that people don't turn against the government," Congress leader Husain Dalwai said.

Dalwani further blamed the government for not focusing on the security of those, who are beaten in the name of cow protection.

"Controlling cow smuggling is fine, but what about the security of those who are manhandled in the name of 'Gau Raksha'," he added.