Burgeoning slaughterhouses

Twinkle Twinkle little star !—the toddlers are singing this rhyme in chorus . The atmosphere in the classroom is wonderfully pleasurable, and, its fun all around. A little noise coming through the window, is of no concern for these minors. Suddenly a sharp piercing cry of a goat being mowed down in a near by temporary shop starts coming in, as the shop has just started its business-and within a second the fun transforms into dread. All the kids are fearfully silent, until the goat-cry stops coming. They resume the rehearsing of the rhyme again, but, the ambience is different now-full of fear and sorrow. Few are weeping, few have tears rolling down their tender cheeks, and few are on the verge of crying. Their face clearly indicating the trauma they are in now. This is a case of a school located in Jamshedpur. There are several butcher houses, which have mushroomed in and around this school in Kadma, a suburb of Jamshedpur.

What impact these scenes and sounds are creating on the developing minds of the kids, can be read easily, by watching their faces, when they cross these butcher houses. Their walking and prancing suddenly changes to a quick run, to avoid the gruesome scene. The filth around the shop is a paradise for flies and stray dogs, and a curse for the passersby, the adjacent shop owners and for the dwellers. But, all are helpless, because this is India.

Jamshedpur boasts of having the first private Integrated Steel Plant in India. The pioneer of Indian industrialization and self-dependence- Mr. J.N.Tata had directed his son, Mr. R.D.Tata to make Jamshedpur, a well planned city, with broader roads, schools, markets, playgrounds, and parks. But the dream city, which still is on the top five cleanest cities of India list, has witnessed some radical change in the people’s perceptions and the haphazard growth of the localities. As the employment opportunities are becoming less, year by year, people are resorting to other means of livelihood. These butcher houses are then looking like festoons on the lovely portrait of the landscape of Jamshedpur.

Tata Steel and Tata Motors are still the heart and prime movers of this ‘steel’ city. Tata Steel carved out a new entity-‘Jusco’ for better amenities in the city. But the entity later spared its wings to other cities and areas, only to undermine the living standards of this city, as it seems now. For, this single issue makes mockery of the authorities(District administration, police, civil bodies etc), on whose shoulders the beauty and tidiness of this city depends, for other burning issues will certainly find their voices in my coming articles. I hope that in this internet-age, this article makes to the desks of the authorities concerned, anyhow.