by Lydia Thomas
Kasaiwada, also known as Qureshi Nagar in Kurla east is home to a large number of Khateek community, most of who work in the slaughterhouses in Mumbai. Since the 2nd of March, with the President’s assent to a 20 year old Bill preventing the slaughter of bulls and bullocks in addition to the already existing ban on cow slaughter, thousands of slaughterhouse workers have been left without any work. Many of them live in already pitiable condition, struggling with supply of water and electricity. In addition to their present conditions, the recent ban has left the men without work, and unable to meet expenses of the house.
Sultana Qureshi, who lives with her aged mother-in-law, is suffering from cancer. She hasn’t been taking her medication for the last ten days, as she is unable to afford them anymore. “It’s been one month, and the government has not been listening to us. What did we do wrong that they are now taking it out on our stomachs? This is what our men have been doing for generations. If it was something new, we could have easily switched to another job.” This is true in a sense for these women as well. Most of them do not work, but rely on their husbands’ earnings in order to look after the running of the household. It has been this way for many years. They do not have the option of looking out for alternative employment because they do not have any such experience.
They do not have a sense of agency, and depend entirely on their men. Shammo Qureshi, a 25 year old housewife said that- “Our women don’t work. They hardly get out of their homes. We do not talk about our problems outside. We live off our men”. But these women cannot stay within their four walls anymore, with the kind of position their husbands and sons are in, and which was why they wanted to talk, and let people know how they have been struggling.
They lamented the lack of media attention on them following the ban, despite them being a very large community affected by it. For these women and their families, the biggest struggle right now is with meeting their daily expenses, especially with regard to food for their children. Among the older women, there are quite a few who require medicines to be bought, which they cannot afford anymore.
Yasmeen Qureshi (extreme right), along with her son Faisal and other women of Kasaiwada in Kurla east who have been struggling to make ends meet.
Yasmeen Qureshi, whose husband Saleem used to work in the slaughterhouse, has a 19-year old mentally challenged son to look after, who has a heart problem. Faisal, her son, who does not talk, keeps crying for food. Some of the families have taken their children out of school because they cannot afford the fee any longer. They struggle with paying the bills for water and electricity and are illegally fined large sums of money in order to have these restored. There was a common resounding among the women of an apathetic government that has only been saying things but has done nothing for them since coming into power.
Haji Bashir Qureshi, who is the leader of the Qureshi community, pointed out that the decision, however political it may seem, “is not affecting only Muslims. There are over 3 crore Hindu farmers as well who are selling their animals in order to buy younger, fitter ones. There are so many leather workers in Dharavi who aren’t Muslim and have also lost their livelihoods. We are a big number of people who have been affected by this ban”. He spoke about the danger of having such a large number of people laid off their work, it could lead to increased crime and anti-social elements.
“People in their frustration will not even fear punishment, which is how bad the situation can get.”
To simplify it, the beef trade begins from the level of the farmers, who sell their aged cattle to the traders in order to buy younger ones as replacement. The traders have their own workers in the abattoir who are do the job of slaughtering. The useful by-products after the slaughter are sent away to respective industries (fat, bones, blood and so on). Much of the meat is sent to companies that package it for export. In Sanpada, Navi Mumbai, there a number of these companies, like Allana, Al Kabeer and Altamas which carry out the exports of the meat. Workers here easily number from 300 to 350 per factory, who carry out a range of responsibilities ranging from butchers to packers and cleaners. For the last couple of months, many of these contract based workers have been staying home, because there is no work at the company. Their bosses tell them that they will be called back whenever there is work.
Most of the women working in these companies are the sole breadwinners in their family. Mumtaz is a widow, having three children of her own. Sabarunissa, too is a widow, who is providing for herself and her two daughters. They do not know how they are going to make ends meet, with their rents still due.
Mumtaz, Sabarunissa and Rizwana, workers at a meat export company
Rizwana, 30, who works in the cleaning department at one of these companies is to be married next month- “I have no siblings, and my parents have passed away. I don’t know what is going to happen”. These women began to speak only after a little coaxing, out of fear of their bosses. Rizwana says, “what if my face appears on TV at the gathering in Azad Maidan on 24th of March? I will lose my job”. Coupled with the fear of raising their voice against their struggle to make ends meet, these women, a large majority of who are daily wage workers still come daily to the company, in the hope that there will be some work to do.
Even before President Pranab Mukherjee gave his assent to the Maharashtra Animal Preservation (Amendment) Bill of 1995 on the 2nd of March 2015, those who have been working in the business had been facing immense hurdles. Prithvi and Pratap are brothers who along with their father who are a part of the transportation aspect of the trade. They, like many other drivers that are a part of the entire chain, transport the animals from where they have been purchased, to the abattoir in Mumbai. But even this seemingly simple task has been a painful experience for them.
In the past three to four months, they have been beaten up by goons who they state are from the Bajrang Dal, for carrying the animals to the slaughterhouse. They know the names of their attackers, but are fearful of backlash and do not want state it out loud. Filing a police complaint is not even an option because they say police themselves fear these men.
Anita Chavan, whose husband and two sons are drivers that transport the animals to the abattoir.
Anita, the brothers’ mother, asks me- “If this is about religion, should they not stop the vehicle and just let go of the animals? Why do they have to beat up someone who is trying to earn his living? You say this is your god? What kind of rule of law is this which allows these men to go on doing this?” Instead of rescuing the animals, these mobs which range from 25 to 50 men at once drag the drivers out of their vehicles, steal their phones and cash, and chase after them into the forest, later on setting the vehicles on fire. While they talk about their ordeal, they show me a video of a group called Gau Raksha Dal, an armed unit that carries out brutal attacks on vehicles transporting animals to slaughterhouses, records these and put up videos online in the name of gau raksha. But as the brothers’ mother says,
“We also believe in gau mata. Cows are not brought to slaughter houses, and they are not being slaughtered, for many years. It is all lies. Sab inke naatak hain.”
English
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