Suchergebnisse

This article focuses on the voices raised from Muslim, Christian and Dalit communities on the highly sensitive topic of beef consumption in India. It discusses the main points of the debate on cow protection which has taken place in the last years. India is defined as a secular country, but already in this text (in article 48) the hindu portion of the population managed to obtain an important recognition of the inviolability of the cow. as a matter of fact, the vast majority of Indian states (excluding the North-east states, West bengal and Kerala) currently forbid the slaughtering of cows, and often also of bulls, bullocks, heifers and calves. Many Muslims, Christians and Dalits, in addition to many people who work in the beef-related business, regard the constitutional immunity given to the cow as discriminating against their communities, through a sort of 'food fascism', not only from a religious point of view, but also in relation to their economical subsistence and livelihood.

The Indian Government has defined the Birhor as a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG). They live in small, scattered communities in Jharkhand and Odisha. Until the 1950s, their lifestyle was primarily nomadic and depended on the availability of forest game and market trends. The government of India then began to limit Birhor access to the forests, forcing them into low-skilled agricultural and mining jobs and settling them in resettlement colonies. The majority of the Birhor still live in these colonies, in houses that they use and inhabit, yet cannot completely appreciate. The reason for this lack of appreciation derives mainly from their religious beliefs and their cultural perception of living spaces. Consequently, many Birhor have made considerable changes to their allotted housing, not only to adapt it to their cultural concepts, but also to serve the perceived requests of the invisible, yet omnipresent, hapram bonga, spiritual ancestors, who are always treated with the greatest consideration in Birhor settlements.

Achieving zero human deaths from dog-mediated rabies has been set as a global target for 2030. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted essential health services across the world, with disproportionate impacts on Neglected Tropical Diseases. Through a mixed-method study using stakeholder questionnaires and in-depth interviews, we examined the scale and nature of disruption from the first year of the pandemic to rabies control programs, and reflected on lessons for the future. Study participants included practitioners and policymakers working in government, academia, international organizations, and the pharmaceutical industry across 48 countries, mainly in Africa and Asia. Mass dog vaccination, essential to rabies control, was most heavily impacted and in 2020, was carried out as planned in just 5% of surveyed countries. Access to post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) also decreased due to fear of COVID-19 infection and difficulties in reaching health care centers. Dog vaccination and PEP delivery suffered from disruptions to the importation and distribution of vaccines. School closures affected rabies awareness activities and, when public events moved online, they could not reach the most disadvantaged groups. Surveillance, already weak, was severely disrupted by movement restrictions which, together with reduced demand for PEP, exacerbated under-reporting. Participants reported growing complaints around free-roaming dogs, with numbers likely to have increased in some settings. In some countries, dog rabies outbreaks and human rabies cases were already ascribed to the pandemic, but further impacts are likely still to be realized. Meanwhile, decreased demand for PEP from COVID-19 constraints could lead to reduced procurement in future. In the wake of post-COVID-19 demands on health services, there is an opportunity for veterinary services to show leadership in progressing the Zero by 30 agenda, particularly in scaling up mass dog vaccination within and across countries, as well as potential to make better use of ...