Gaushalas or Goshalas () are protective shelters for stray cows in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. Government grants and donations are the primary source of income of the cow shelters in India. Since 2014, when BJP government came into power in India, India has spent on cow shelters in two years between 2014 and 2016.

Description

Jawaharlal Nehru visiting a Goshala during his Gujarat tour in 1949

Goshala, a

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

word ("Go" means cow and "Shala" means a shelter place: Go + Shala = shelter for cows), means the abode or

sanctuary A sanctuary, in its original meaning, is a sacred space, sacred place, such as a shrine, protected by ecclesiastical immunity. By the use of such places as a haven, by extension the term has come to be used for any place of safety. This seconda ...

for cows, calves and oxen.

History

The first ''Gaurakshini sabha'' ( cow protection society) was established in

Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...

in 1882. The movement spread rapidly all over

North India North India is a geographical region, loosely defined as a cultural region comprising the northern part of India (or historically, the Indian subcontinent) wherein Indo-Aryans (speaking Indo-Aryan languages) form the prominent majority populati ...

and to

Bengal Bengal ( ) is a Historical geography, historical geographical, ethnolinguistic and cultural term referring to a region in the Eastern South Asia, eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. The region of Benga ...

Bombay Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial centre, financial capital and the list of cities i ...

, Madras presidencies and other

central provinces The Central Provinces was a province of British India. It comprised British conquests from the Mughals and Marathas in central India, and covered parts of present-day Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra states. Nagpur was the primary ...

. The organization rescued wandering cows and reclaimed them to groom them in places called gaushalas. Charitable networks developed all through

to collect rice from individuals, pool the contributions, and re-sell them to fund the ''gaushalas''. Signatures, up to 350,000 in some places, were collected to demand a ban on cow sacrifice.''Vishnu's crowded temple, India since the great rebellion'', pp. 67-69, Maria Misra, 2008, Yale University Press, . Between 1880 and 1893, hundreds of ''gaushalas'' were opened. Pathmeda godham is the largest Gaushala in India with over 85000 cows being sheltered in the small town of Pathmeda in southern Rajasthan.

Government grants

Since the BJP government came into power in India in 2014, India has spent on cow shelters in between the years 2014 and 2016. To prevent unproductive cows being sent to the

abattoir In livestock agriculture and the meat industry, a slaughterhouse, also called an abattoir (), is a facility where livestock animals are slaughtered to provide food. Slaughterhouses supply meat, which then becomes the responsibility of a meat ...

, the government started the Rashtriya Gokul Mission in mid-2014, a national program that involves constructing havens for retired cows. Proceeds from the animals' bodily waste are intended to pay for their upkeep. In May 2016, the Indian national government held an inaugural national conference on goshalas. The Niti Ayog is working on developing a roadmap for Gaushala economy to develop commercial use of cow urine and cow dung for various purposes.

Other sources of income

Donations are the only source of income for the Goshala. Some goshalas offer

yoga Yoga (UK: , US: ; 'yoga' ; ) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines that originated with its own philosophy in ancient India, aimed at controlling body and mind to attain various salvation goals, as pra ...

and music lessons for additional income.

References

External links