[Reader-list] Idgah slaughterhouse: work and nuisance

[Ritika]

hello everybody,

I have been doing some work on the Idgah slaughterhouse. Well, the study 
area and the interest emerged from my M.phil thesis which is on the 
"Distribution of urban waste at city's peripheries." I had initially 
called it as "distribution of urban externalities on city's 
peripheries...but realised that i was in all probability using the term 
loosely. I had three case study areas:
a) Idgah slaughterhouse (which has had a long relocation history due to 
reasons of people not wanting a slaughterhouse in their backyard etc..)
b) Asola Bhatti Mine area (it was suggested to make the now defunct 
stone quarry area into delhi's landfill site)
c) Narela - Bawana Industrial Area: (to make 'delhi' clean, its waste is 
pushed on to someone else's area)

So what has emerged is a vary banal thesis with very linear arguments.
IGNORE

I am now concentrating on a just one study area. The Idgah 
Slaughetrhouse. I am not going to preach vegetarianism or discuss the 
rampant illegal slaughtering. What i am trying to do and which is still 
in an early stage is work out some relation between city, markets and 
nuisance trade.

Relocation: For a city like Delhi with a large and growing meat-eating 
population, the existence of a well run slaughterhouse is considered 
absolutely essential. The usual practice has been to locate 
slaughterhouses at some distance from the urban parts of the city. The 
insanitary and hopeless conditions in which most of them operate made 
this all the more necessary.  In the absence of any long-term planning, 
the slaughterhouse had to be shifted from time to time further out with 
increasing sprawl. For many years, the Delhi slaughterhouses were in the 
Turkman Gate area. But with the spread of the city, these were shifted 
in 1914 to the Idgah area where they existed till 1950's. At that time, 
this area lay quite outside the inhabited part of the city. However, on 
account of development of residential areas in the locality, the 
question of removal of the slaughterhouse to another suitable site has 
acquired considerable importance since 1938. Residential areas now 
surround the present slaughterhouse and the slaughtering is causing a 
nuisance to the community. (Ref: Town and Country Planning organization 
-1950s)

Intemediaries: Denis Vidal's work on Intermediaries in Grain Market 
(2000) gets a bit more substantited when one looks at the 
slaughetrhouse. Haroon's (a butcher) day begins at 05:30 in the morning 
when he goes and buys his animals for the day, from the “bakra mandi” - 
as the Idgah areas is also known as. This mandi starts booming with 
activity around 05:00. However some other sources tell me that 
slaughtering work begins around 03:00 – 04:00 am. Haroon meets a middle 
man/ arti/ dalal and buys goats from him. The Dalal is payed a 
commission of 2% per animal. A small animal weighing up 6 kg is sold for 
around Rs. 1000/- On an average he and his brother slaughters about 15 - 
20 goats in a day. Denis Vidal (Ref: Delhi : Urban Space and Human 
Destinies; edited by: veronique dupont, Emma tarlo and denis Vidal,2000) 
says, “...It is difficult to estimate the number of people whose 
activities are directly linked to the grain market in Delhi. The number 
of intermediaries is something which the market people themselves find 
most difficult to evaluate...” Dennis refers to the middle men as Adati 
in his essay.  At Idgah they are known as Arati.

Local Trades: Along with the meat that is sent for local consumption, a 
lot of other body parts are also sold within the same premises of the 
slaughterhouse. This space is just behind the idgah. There were women – 
mostly selling goat heads, goat legs, liver, and other body parts which 
i just couldn't recognise. These women were sitting in front of the MCD 
dhalao. I saw one guy whose pyjama and shirt had too many blood spots 
and flesh parts stuck up on his clothes...animal skins are also sold 
within the same premises..

Waste: The slaughterhouse waste goes to Ghazipur Landfill site. Each 
Truck has about 350 kg of cowdung, 5-15 kg of animal parts and 60-80 kg 
of clotted blood, all mixed. The Gazipur landfill site is located in the 
east of Delhi.  Its area is around 100 acres. Since 1984, 1250-1300 
tonnes of garbage is being dumped here every day. 50% of this garbage 
comes from the abbatoir. 3500-4000 kites were hovering over the exposed 
animal remains. 80 to 90 stray cattle were struggling to find food from 
this mess. 50 ragpickers and 30-40 stray dogs rummaging through the 
garbage. 250-300 families live there.

This mail is just a little summary of whatever work i have donde so far. 
  If you're interested to read more and see some pictures, go to:

http://blog.sarai.net/users/ritika/

It'll be nice if people could send me their comments, suggestions some 
interesting questions, anything. If nothing..just let me know that u 
liked my blog...:)

cheers
ritika


Cheers