This is How Much the Yogi Government Loves Cows

The Yogi Adityanath government is forcing cow on Uttar Pradesh (UP). Going by the policy decisions taken from the time he was sworn in as the UP Chief Minister, the cow appears to be at the centre of Yogi's model of growth and governance. From promoting a health drink made out of cow urine to setting up gaushalas in the overcrowded and understaffed jails, the BJP government has been going all out on its cow mission.

In the state budget presented last week, the state allocated an unprecedented Rs 233 crore for the welfare of cow and dairy development, including Rs 75 crore for the Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya Mini Dairy Scheme and Rs 15 crore for Pashu Arogya Melas (cattle health fairs) in every single block in the state.

The government has also announced Rs 100 crore for National Cattle Health and Disease Control Programme and Rs 27 crore for 700-odd mobile cattle hospitals to “ensure cattle health and breed improvement”.

Taking a holistic and nuanced approach towards the welfare of cows, the Yogi government announced a Dairy Development Fund of Rs 15 crore.

To popularise and reward cow breeding, the “Nand Baba (Bulls) Puraskar Scheme” was launched, offering a Rs 52 lakh reward to farmers who produce maximum milk from cows of Indian breed.

The government also announced "Gokul Puraskar" prizes worth Rs 54 lakh  for people who run cowsheds.

The cow not only dominates the Yogi government's idea of cattle welfare, it also remains at the centre of the government's plans for the larger health of humans.

That is probably why cow sheds in jails—a recommendation of the UP Gau Sewa Ayog—is being construed as a way to help prisoners reform themselves. 

The budget allocation of Rs 233 crore was in addition to the initial allocation of Rs 2 crore expected to be spent in setting up gau shalas in 12 jails of the state. The commission headed by former IAS officer Rajiv Gupta has got renewed significance under the Yogi government. The gau shalas will be set up in the jails of Lucknow, Barabanki, Sultanpur, Sitapur, Bareilly, Unnao, Agra, Naini (Allahabad), Varanasi and at central jails in Fatehgarh, Bareilly and Kanpur Dehat.

While the minister of state for jails Jai Kumar Singh has assured there is enough space and enough people to take care of cows in prisons, the reality is UP’s jails are extremely overcrowded and overly understaffed.

According to IndiaSpend, a data-driven non-profit journalistic website, the prisons of India’s most populous state are 69% over capacity–compared with the national average of 14%–and have only two-thirds of the staff they need, according to 2015 prison statistics, the latest available with the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). There is also a 33% shortage in jail staff in UP.

What’s more, the state government has also approved a major project of establishing 1000-capacity gaushalas in seven districts and 16 urban locations.

The 100 Ayurvedic hospitals to be set up in rural areas announced in the Budget are expected to promote medicines made from cow urine.

The State Ayurveda Department has prepared eight medicines made of cow urine and the government is all set to promote them as beneficial for problems related to liver and immune deficiency.

According to R.R. Chaudhary, the director of the UP Ayurveda department, eight medicines have been prepared at official pharmacies in Pilibhit  and Lucknow using cow urine, cow ghee and cow milk. These medicines help people deal with medical problems related to liver, joint pain and immune deficiency.

The Ayurvedic pharmacy in Pilibhit has also prepared a proposal to “collect, process and sell” packaged bottles of cow urine. The pharmacy which claimed to have prepared medicines from cow urine, now plans to promote packaged cow urine as “health-giving drink”.

If the ideas of Dr. Prakash Chandra Saxena, principal and superintendent of Government Ayurveda College and Hospital in Pilibhit, is anything to go by, it would not be long before cow urine will be available in packages as a “healthy drink”.

“Cow urine is useful not only for medicinal purposes. Drinking 10 ml to 20 ml cow urine daily acts as a preventive against seasonal diseases, like fever, cough and stomach-related ailments. Hence, we have come up with a plan to promote cow urine as a health-giving drink, which we will send to the Ayurveda department in Lucknow for approval. Daily consumption of cow urine strengthens the human immunity,” Dr. Saxena said.

Yogi's priority and focus on cows and cow urine comes after the Narendra Modi government in July 2017 set up a 19-member panel, which has three members from the RSS and VHP, to carry out “scientifically validated research on cow derivatives including urine, and their benefits” through the SVAROP (Scientific Validation and Research on Panchagavya) programme.

The job of the panel headed by the Union science and technology minister, Harsh Vardhan, is to come up with projects that can help “scientifically validate benefits of panchgavya the concoction of cow dung, cow urine, milk, curd and ghee in various spheres such as nutrition, health and agriculture,” says a circular from the Ministry of Science and Technology.