Socio-economic aspects of Qurbani

Qurbani is an important religious rite performed by the Islamic world as an expression of obedience to Almighty Allah and sacrificing everything to seek His pleasure and nearness. Allah commands, "Therefore, to thy Lord turn in prayer and sacrifice (108.2)" but at the same time clarifies, "It is neither their flesh nor their blood that reaches Allah; it is your piety that reaches him. 22:37". It means that the animal is only a symbol; what Allah really wants is slaughtering of one's innate evil desires and thoughts.
However, nowadays the spirit of sacrifice is by and large tempered by mundane spirit of competition, consumerism and interplay of commercial interests. A cow bought from the cattle market, for instance, is not seen as an object of sacrifice but interest mainly turns on its cost, its size and the quantity of meat it is going to yield. Curious onlookers literally line up along the route and blurt out that inevitable question, "How much did it cost?" Some even volunteer a comment or two -'You got it real cheap' or 'the price is too high'. Back in the neighbourhood, people run a referendum, so to say, on who has got the biggest and most expensive animal in the locality. Thus what was intended as religious rites too often turns into an annual contest for displaying the power of wealth, the antithesis of sacrifice.
This spirit of showmanship reverberates across the Islamic world as well; this sub-continent in particular. In India, for instance, where cow slaughtering is prohibited except in West Bengal and Kerala, the focus shifts to goats. I am tempted to quote an excerpt from an interesting report in the Times of India datelined New Delhi to underscore the fanfare the occasion witnesses:    
"Just behind Jama Masjid, visitors clustered around Munna Bhai, holding a pair of goats, whom he named Shahrukh and Salman Khan, was busy negotiating prices. Both the offerings were 'two- toothed', which was the specification most sought after. The goats were healthy, each weighing about 60 kilos. The asking price for the pair was Rs 1 lakh; individually they would fetch Rs 60,000."
The spirit of sacrifice may have been diluted but Qurbani, nevertheless, generates a flurry of economic activities centring on the world of animals. Cattle traders from the countryside herd the sacrificial animals to the makeshift cattle markets in the cities in quest of rich urban buyers. The political activists and musclemen collect tolls from the cattle traders on the highways. Fraudsters prowl the cattle market with forged notes to dupe the unwary dealers.
On Eid day professional butchers hike their 'service charges' for processing the slaughtered animals; amateurish rickshaw-pullers and day labourers also jump into the fray. The tanners, orphanages and madrasas maintain a day-night vigil to collect the hides and skin. The poor shuttles from door to door in quest of their one-third quota of the sacrificed animals. The list is seemingly endless.
How do we quantify the size of the Qurbani economy attributed to the activities it generates? The starting point is, of course, the number of animals sacrificed on the occasion. There are no systematic data but only conjectures and speculations in different media. One news media (The report24.com of October 06, 2014) quotes an official of the Department of Livestock Services to say that some 4.0 million (40 lakh) animals are sacrificed across the country, with 1.0 million (10 lakh) slaughtered in the capital city alone. The report24.com also says that Dr Abul Kashem, a professor at Sylhet Agricultural University, has given a more or less similar estimate. The prices of these animals reportedly amount to around TK 100 billion (TK 10,000 crore).
The second fallout of Qurbani revolves round trading of hides and skins of the sacrificial animals. According to Bangladesh Tannery Association, about 222 million (22 crore) ft of rawhide is collected in the country every year, half of which is stocked up during Eid-ul-Azha. Rawhides worth about TK 40 billion (TK 4,000 crore) are reportedly traded nationwide on the Eid day alone.
The third spin-off from the Qurbani is flaying and processing of the animals. One report says that the butchers and seasonal workers rake in Tk 5 to 7.5 billion (Tk 500-750 crore) for this purpose.
These activities generate plenty of heat in the economy and create demand for money. The banking system absorbs some of the heat by lending about TK. 4.0 billion (TK 400 crore) to facilitate the procurement of raw hides and skins by the tanners.
While Qurbani calls for sacrifice of healthy animals, some practices related to it are certainly not healthy. The most objectionable practice is the cruelty meted out to the animals hauled from distant locations to big cities like Dhaka and Chittagong in open trucks stacked like sardines. Scorching sun or heavy downpour, the poor things are made to stand on their tired legs for endless hours.
About a million or so cows that spill over to Bangladesh from India suffer another round and more excruciating pains. The following poignant account of the odyssey of these dumb creatures on their treks across the vast expanse of India from as far away as Haryana was given in the Time magazine in its May 29, 2000 issue:
"Although it is illegal to transport the animals for slaughter across state borders, traders bribe officials to look the other way as they pack the cows into rail cars or trucks headed for West Bengal or Kerala. The animals frequently gore one another or break their pelvises when forced to jump from the trucks. Some suffocate inside boxcars. Thousands of others are surreptitiously herded overland -- often without food or water. If they collapse from exhaustion, herders break their tails or throw chilli pepper and tobacco in their eyes to make them walk again."
The maltreatment is uncharacteristic of majority of Indians who revere cows as divine entities. Commercial interest, it seems, often overshadows the strength of faith. While we cannot mitigate the hardship of the animals beyond our borders the government should prescribe a strict set of regulations to ensure a more humane way of transporting the animals within our territory. Otherwise, Almighty Allah will not forgive us for cruelty to these poor gentle animals.
Secondly, on the Eid day Dhaka and other cities turn into virtual garbage bins with hundreds and thousands of tons of the remains of the slaughtered animals strewn all over the places. The stench floating in the air also becomes unbearable. The city corporations should urgently build slaughter houses in and around the cities for centrally handling the tasks of slaughtering, flaying etc. It would save them millions of taka they now spend on collecting the Qurbani-generated garbage.
Thirdly, the tanners form syndicates to depress the prices to buy hides and skin at throwaway price. This year the price of hides and skin has gone up in the international market as also in Pakistan and India. On the other hand, our Tannery Association has lowered the price of hides and skin by Tk.10 per square feet. The hides and skins or their sale proceeds are donated by the people to the poor or orphanages and Madrasas. Through their monopolistic stranglehold the unkind tanners take away, so to say, morsels from the mouths - mukher grash, as we say in Bangla - of the poor. Ironically, instead of chastising the tanners the government deploys law-enforcement agencies to prevent hides and skin from slipping out of the capital and out of the country. Instead of leaving it to whims and caprices of the syndicate the government should fix minimum procurement price from the next season.

The writer is a former official of the central bank.
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