The New Gobar Economy

A novel scheme in Chhattisgarh has the government buying cow dung from cattle owners to produce compost for sale; the BJP dubs it a scam

- Rahul Noronha

Politics in the name of cow welfare has seen political parties fashion various policies and programmes in states governed by them. Congress-ruled Chhattisgarh took it a step further in July last year by launching a scheme for its citizens to be able to monetise cow dung. The Godhan Nyay Yojana, which intended to provide income support to cattle owners through procurement of dung, is now being pegged by the Bhupesh Baghel government as a source of vermicompost to address the shortage of chemical fertilisers in the state. Plans are also afoot to diversify the cow dung product range by manufacturing items like paint, phenyl and gau kasht (cowdung log, used in funerals).

The Godhan Nyay Yojana is inspired by the state government’s Narwa-Garuwa-Ghurwa-Baadi project, which aims to boost the rural economy. The centre of activity under the Godhan scheme is the gauthan (cattle shelter). The Baghel government plans to build some 10,569 gauthans—roughly one in each panchayat in the state. As on November 30, 7,777 had been constructed.

HOW IT WORKS

The government sees gauthans as rural assets since they are built on community land and can support varied economic activity. “Influential people at the local level had encroached upon portions of village land. When land for gauthans was being identified, a lot of this land was freed and secured,” says S. Bharathidasan, managing director, Godhan Nyay Yojana.

Chhattisgarh has some 950,000 cattle owners. Of the 273,966 cattle owners registered under the Godhan scheme, 192,144 have sold dung to the state government at the prescribed rate of Rs 2 a kilo. Dung collection at the