Cow is not merely an animal. It is the backbone of the rural economy of India. The modern educated people don’t understand the real worth of cows, and therefore, there is unnecessary debate going on about cow-slaughter. This is a tragedy that the urbanization has deprived people of understanding the worth of a very important part of our economy – cow. Irrespective of religion, caste or other criteria, everyone wants to have a cow in rural India. In fact, till only a few decades back, everyone would try to keep at least one cow in the home. It is the so called modern educated people, who have abdicated cow in the last few decades.

In fact, cow is an integral part of rural India’s culture, rituals and day to day life. Cow meets most of the day-to-day requiements of rural India like food (milk), medicines (cow-urine), fertilizer (cow-dung), pesticide (cow-urine) etc. Even if the cow is aged, people used to offer food to the cow and the cow-dung and cow-urine would be available till the last. NGOs like Rajasthan Go-Sewa Sangh developed bio-gas and bio-electricity plants based on cow-dung.

Changing life style has forced people to abandon villages and switch to concrete jungle of the big cities, where they hardly have a few square feet land for their own survival. So, how can they think about cow or something beyond themselves? Narrow houses have also forced a narrow perspective towards life in some cases.

Cow is beyond religion, it is truly the backbone of the economy of rural India. In Western Rajasthan, Gujar community very fondly takes care of cows and nobody probably can equal them in terms of cow rearing. The kind of care that this community takes is amazing. In terms of religion, this community is Muslim. Each Gujar family has a large number of cows and, particularly, the “Rathi” breed of cow, which is known for its own characteristics. People who don’t have a cow, repent for not having a cow. However, they would relish the advantage of nurturing a cow by offering the first home-made bread in the morning to a cow nearby. It is not just offering a bread, it is the satisfaction that the cow has lovingly accepted the bread and has given its blessings that people are looking for. It is surprising that in a country where the first piece of food is reserved for cow, there are some people raising voice against cow. Lack of exposure to rural India creates this type of problem. I shall illustrate with the example of Sri Nagnechi Self Help Group of Kolayat (a rural area in Bikaner district of Rajasthan). Ten poor women started a self-help group with marginal savings of Rs. 100 each per month. Soon they were able to take some bank loan and each of them purchased a cow. Today, each of the family is earning over Rs. 2000 per month through the cow. It's not just income alone, they are also able to achieve better health and nutrition, better satisfaction of cow-rearing and a social status also (having a cow in home is also a status symbol in rural India).

In a country, where Rs. 41000 crores are proposed for development of a developed city, where thousands of crores are allocated for organizing just one sports events, can’t we enable each rural household to have one cow in his home? Are the few thousands that some governments get from cow-slaughter houses so important to them that they should start a debate on “Cow”? Are the so called modern educated youth so oblivious of rich Indian practices that they indulge in derogatory remarks for “Cow” for which their own grand-parents would have sacrificed the life? It is not surprising that considering the benefits that Cow offers to the people, it is rightly called “Mother”.