OPINION

How we treat our animals despite our Constitutional duty to protect them and treat them with compassion is clearly visible from the pictures. When I was passing by on this busy road leading through the posh area of Shastri Nagar of newly created union territory of Jammu, I happened to had a glimpse of these helpless living creatures of God, who were gulping the dirt which the residents of this area routinely dump on the roadside and then on someday is lifted by the Jammu Muncipal Corporation (JMC) to dump somewhere else and because of the negligence of the inhabitants of this area, this has become a feeding point for all animals and the government authorities are not averse to it. It is wonderful to note that such garbage points are spread almost in whole of the city of Jammu and this way both the citizens and the authorities have jointly become the contributory factors to demean the ” Swachh Bharat Abhiyan” (Mission clean India) introduced by the Government of India.

In the year 1960, the Parliament of India enacted a law “The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960” and the intent behind this legislation was to save the animals from the onslaughts of the man and the society but unfortunately due to poor outlook and approach of the government authorities the Raison De etre of the legislative intent was conculcated.

After all the question before the Indian masses wherever they live in India, is why they are so much having faith in a mere lip service and why they are not empirical about what they profess so vehemently.

Pertinently to say that ever since India has become a Constitutional democracy, no much importance has been accorded to the Part IV-A of the Constitution of India which relates to the Fundamental duties of the citizens and also it is the most neglected part in India. People from all shades of life in India are reluctant to debate or have discussion on any platform, may it be the educational institutions, colleges, Universities, TV Channels or any intellectual fora and the result of this neglect is quite visible in the Country today.

Adhering to the concern of animals, I want to tell you that all the living creatures have well taken care of by the framers of the Constitution of India and so the fundamental duty was imposed on every citizen of India under article 51-A (g) to protect and have compassion for the living creatures. Similarly to give effect the Constitutional mandate, in 1960, The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, came into being and section 11 was incorporated in the act which lays the consequences if the animals are inflicted with pain or cruelty or left in a state of starvation but unfortunately our governments and the society collectively is failed to honor the intent of the legislature and our animals which you can assess from the pictures are still in a state of deprivation and are completely left in lurch by all of us.

Parveen Kumar, the writer is editor-in-chief of the Independent News Web Portal “The Open View.” The strength of my writing is my observation and what i see and capture with my own eyes. You may reach us on our website theopenview.in

Nov 17, 2019