The waning crescent moon shimmered in the alleys of Rajkot’s Chamadia Para, traditionally the animal skinning quarter of the city in Gujarat. Two policemen accompanied by four gau rakshaks, self-professed cow custodians, allegedly forced their way into the courtyard of 60-year-old matriarch Manju Parmar’s tiny brick house, on April 3.
They claimed to have seized 100 kilos of cow meat that Manju and her son Mahesh, 25, had allegedly stocked in the house. They registered a first information report (FIR) against the mother and son, and both were imprisoned under Gujarat’s stringent anti-cow slaughter law, Gujarat Animal Preservation (Amendment) Act, 2017. Manju and Mahesh belong to the Dalit community, traditionally involved in the skinning of dead farm animals, including cows, in Gujarat.
Until last year, 500 to 600 families involved in cattle skinning from different parts of Rajkot worked at the Sokhada dumping ground, 10 kilometres outside the city centre. Today, more and more skinners are renouncing their jobs, sandwiched between an administration that denies them legal recognition by way of identity cards and a safe hygienic place to operate, and gau rakshaks, vigilante squads that threaten to register police complaints and have them imprisoned.
