Cow dung and urine can be used to make everything from cancer medicines to idols of gods, organisations associated with the Sangh Parivar believe. Some of these organisations are already manufacturing tiles, mosquito coils and go-noyl — a substitute for phenyl made of cow urine — manure from cow dung and urine.
About 7 km from Bawana village in Delhi, Gopalgosadan, an organisation associated with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), runs a shelter for 4,000 cows and also sells go-noyl, cow dung cakes for environment-friendly cremation in Delhi and organic manure from cow dung and urine across the country.
Illustration: Jayanto
The idea is to promote cows is not just venerable but useful animals that can sustain an alternative economy. The organisation’s website moots the idea of a pension scheme for cows so that the owner doesn’t have to sell them to a butcher.
“Cow urine is also used for making medicines for cancer and HIV patients,” Rakesh Gupta, who runs Gopalgosadan, told HT. BJP governments have also been sympathetic to some of the assertions regarding the benefits of cow dung and urine.
The BJP government in Rajasthan is also toying with the idea of cleaning the famous Sawai Man Singh hospital in Jaipur with cow urine after recently inaugurating a cow urine refinery at Jalore.
“Gaumutra (cow urine) is used in preparing medicines for various ailments like BP, cholesterol, diabetes, etc, including cancer,” says the website of Gopalgosadan. It says that the cow is the only animal whose dung and urine are venerable.