As of FY 20, India is the largest producer of milk and other dairy products in the world. In fact, the country alone accounts for 20 per cent or one-fifth of global dairy produce and consumption. The dairy industry is of such enormous importance to the country that the Union Government has a separate ministry called the Ministry of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries, and there is also a National Dairy Development Board. But, veganism is a new trend, eating up the efforts made during the ‘White Revolution’ of the 1970s.
A large section of the rural population is dependent on the dairy industry for its living. However, India’s dairy industry is under attack from a fascist force called veganism. The Vegan people do not consume any animal product, and they are so radical about their belief that they think of someone who does not adhere to their belief as a “sinner”.
In India, the dairy industry is being constantly attacked by vegans who want to force everyone to consume the plant-based diet. Recently the Delhi High Court ordered a website ditchdairy.in to remove an article titled ‘White Lie of Amul and Black Truth of Animal Milk’. The article was targeted at Amul and had also tweaked Amul’s popular tagline ‘The Taste of India’ to ‘The Waste of India’.
The readers can visit the website, whose tagline goes as ‘Safed doodh ka kala sach’ (The black reality of white milk). The Vegans, an exponentially growing community in India, are hell-bent to destroy the dairy industry. Most of the vegans of India come from urban, elite backgrounds and have very little awareness about India’s rural economy. In fact, most of these know more about American TV shows than Indian villages and its economy, which is dependent on plants and animals.
However, it is true that in many urban areas, dairying is done at an industrial level and inhumane treatment of animals is prevalent. Many examples such as not allowing the calf to drink milk– which is an essential food for them and giving preference only to the female calf are many inhumane practices prevalent at the places where dairying is done at an industrial scale. However, one does not stop using a motorcycle because it causes environmental pollution or even if there are chances of accidents. There are pros and cons to everything!
Therefore, a campaign against the inhumane treatment of animals definitely needed. However, shunning a large industry which employs billions of people is not only immoral but criminal. Misinformation campaigns against dairy and other animal-based products are similar to betraying the rural economy.
The vegans are as radical about their belief as a large section of the Muslim community over Halal products or Jews over Kosher products. In fact, veganism in India is a step ahead and the vegans see non-vegans as morally inferior!
Every industry has certain bad practices, which need to be eliminated but that does not mean that the industry should be ended altogether. The growing consumption of milk in India– the country that exports dairy products worth 200 million dollars to countries like the United Arab Emirates, Bhutan, Turkey, Egypt, and the United States, shows that there is a huge appetite for a food item that is cheap and healthy.
Given the fact that India already ranks very high in Global Hunger Index despite the availability of food (because the major problem is the availability of nutritious food), the country needs to embrace the dairy products and not shun them due to fascist veganism beliefs.