dna exclusive: Our rozi-roti depends on dead cattle, we will not stop skinning, say Dalits of Rajkot

As Suresh Rathod, 35, busy stacks cattle hides in his godown, his phone rings. Eight kilometres away from Chamariya Para in Rajkot city of Gujarat, a calf has died. Raghu, a 'bharwad' who owns 25-30 cattle, wants Suresh to take away the carcass. Bharwads, though herdsmen, don't want to touch or bury the dead cattle; they expect the Dalits to do the job instead.

It has been close to three weeks since the attack on cattle skinners by self-proclaimed 'gau rakshaks' in Una town of Gir Somnath district, which is up to five hours away from Rajkot. While Dalits in Surendranagar, a nearby town, took to protest by refusing to pick up carcasses, it is business as usual in Chamariya Para.

At Raghu's place in an urban locality, Suresh and his partner pick up the puny dead calf and holding it upside down place it in a jute sack. They then load the sack on to the front of their scooter and make their way to Sokhda dumping ground, another seven kilometres away on the outskirts of the city, to skin it.

Running into 10 acres, Sokhda dumpyard is owned by Rajkot Municipal Corporation (RMC) and used to dispose of animal carcasses. Dalits have come to occupy a part of the ground, where they skin the cattle carcasses in open. The road to the site is bumpy. After traversing a few metres, one will experience the strong stench of rotting meat. Wild dogs roam in dozens and swarms of flies hover around.

As Suresh reaches the site, two men approach him. They carry the calf upside down, hold it by its feet, lay it flat on the ground and deftly go about their skinning work. With a sharp-edged knife, they cut through the legs first and slowly make their way across the torso to split open the hide, exposing the fresh pink meat that wraps the boney cage. In less than five minutes, they are through with the skinning of the calf. "A full grown cow or a buffalo may take over an hour to skin," says Suresh.

After the skinning, organs of the cattle are separated. Swollen stomach and intestines are set apart. Navin Rathod, 36, sears open the stomach of the calf to expose humungous mounds of shredded plastic housed inside the stomach. The entire stretch of the dumping ground is replete with plastic shreds. The bones are left on the ground for close to two months to dry in open.

Gaurav Dave, assistant engineer, RMC, is seemingly 'unaware' of the skinning business that goes on inside the ground. He admits though that the ground's boundaries are unmanned. "We will put up a fence soon. We can't allow animals rot in open like this," he said on seeing the pictures taken by this correspondent. "We are also considering setting up an incineration plant to burn the carcasses," said Dave. The Dalit community, however, is opposed to the idea. An incineration pit can well snatch away their livelihood.

Suresh earns a paltry Rs 10,000-15,000 per month by selling raw hides to traders in Jetpur, a nearby town in Gujarat, who then sell it to leather factories in Kanpur, Kolkata and Madras. The insides of the godowns where he stores the hides raise a stink. On one side are the cattle bones, dumped en masse.

The skinners may be putting their lives in danger, retrieving and storing the hides, but the RMC till now has not bothered to provide them with licence to run godowns. This despite the 500-member strong Dalit community in Chamariya Para appealing for it several times.

"We need licence to legally operate, so that when gau rakshaks halt our vehicles we can tell them that we deal in dead cattle. We want adequate space for skinning and storage. RMC does not equip us with gloves, masks while working in the dumping ground or the godowns. They have turned a blind eye to our condition," says Navinbhai. "The facilities to drain animal blood are dismal. There is not enough ventilation or sunlight in some godown. We also want protection against attacks that occur time and again," he said.

Environment engineer and in-charge of licencing, Solid Waste Management Department, RMC, NK Parmar, however, says: "We are yet to devise any mechanism to regularise the functioning of cattle skinners."