Cow Cure-all Makes A Splash

The Age

Saturday March 1, 2008

Amrit Dhillon, Age Correspondent, Delhi

THE urine of more than a million cows in a north Indian state is to be collected and sold to the makers of traditional medicines who believe it can cure anything from diabetes and skin ailments to AIDS and cancer.

Officials in Uttarakhand, ruled by Hindu nationalists, have begun a scheme to buy about 5900 litres of cow urine every day from farmers and co-operatives.

The urine will be sold for about five rupees (about two Australian cents) a gallon to practitioners of ayurveda, the ancient Indian system of medicine.

These practitioners use cow urine and cow dung to make medicines, as well as soaps, face creams, tooth powder, and shampoos.

"For Hindus, the cow is our mother," said Agriculture Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat. "All its waste products have immense uses. Studies have shown that the urine of the auburn-coloured cows in our state has amazing properties. That is why we want to promote cow urine therapy."

Orthodox Hindus revere the cow and consider all its products sacred. To this day, if a Brahmin child is "contaminated" by the touch of a low-caste person, the only way to restore the child's "purity" is to administer a cocktail of cow dung, water from the River Ganges and sand from its banks.

© 2008 The Age

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