A goat-less Bakri Eid: Covid-19 is dampening festival sales across India
Every year during Bakri Eid, Jameela Pathan and her husband travel from Mumbai to their village in Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh, to slaughter a sacrificial goat and celebrate with their families. This year, the coronavirus pandemic compelled them to cancel not just their travel plans, but also their plans to make the ritual Eid sacrifice.
“There is no money this year, because we have been out of work since the lockdown began,” said Pathan, who works as a tailor in her cramped home in Shivaji Nagar, one of Mumbai’s largest slums. Her husband is an event photographer. The couple has been living on their savings ever since the nationwide lockdown to contain the Covid-19 pandemic came into force on March 24.
Even if they had the money to buy a goat for Bakri Eid on July 31, Pathan is not sure if they would be able to bring it home for slaughter this year. The reason, she says, is the Maharashtra government’s Standard Operating Procedures for the festival, released two weeks ago.
The guidelines stipulate that the sale and purchase of animals for Bakri Eid has to be conducted online to prevent crowding at animal markets in light of Covid-19. However, with no specific system in place to facilitate...
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