Cattle lives in Baroda Jail gets precious

When asked what motivated the authorities to opt for insuring the cattle, BCJ Superintendent Ramnivas Meena said,“Once I was on a routine round of the jail premises and tumbled on a sick cow in the cattle shed. Its illness generated an idea in my mind that all the cattle in jail’s gaushala be insured.”

Out of a total of 51 cows and bulls in jail’s stable, 36 have been insured for a period of three years with the New India Assurance Company Limited on a payment of Rs 6,783 as the premium. The rest could not be insured as they were either underage or overage or medically not healthy.

All the cattle insured were in the age group of 3 to 5 years and while maximum value of a cow and bull in the jail had been fixed at Rs 5,000 at the time of insurance, Rs 3,000 was the minimum valuation.

The value of the animal was calculated by company’s veterinary officer on the basis of animals’ age and milk-yield in case of cows and physical fitness in case of bulls.

According to G L Soni, Deputy Manager of the Insurance Company, annual premium was charged at a rate of 4 per cent of the value of the cattle and in case of those purchased on subsidy provided by the government under Integrated Rural Development Programme, it was levied at a rate of 2.25 per cent.

A cow or a buffalo becomes eligible for insurance cover after first delivery only, he said, adding that while the maximum age limit for insurance for a cow was 10 years, it was 12 for a buffalo. Likewise, minimum and maximum age limit for a bullock was 3 and 10 years respectively, according to Soni.

Not only are some of the cows and bulls insured — there are no buffaloes in the jail — but are also named after famous rivers and personalities of the nation. If there are cows bearing names like Ganga, Yamuna, Narmada and Sindhu, there are also some named after goddesses like Parvati, Sharda, Amba, Laxmi, Sita, Rukmani and Urvashi.

Lest the bulls don’t feel inferior after their utility for agricultural work has dwindled with the invention of tractors, they, too, have been named after revered personalities of the land. Name any ancient figure, for instance Ram, Laxman, Bharat, Arjun, Bhim, Balram, and you will find a bull named after him in the BCJ.

Ingenious jail authorities have even named a cow Laila’, symbolising love, which is perhaps the Indian version of Valentine of the West. Even Bollyhood seems to have found some space in the jail in the shape of a cow named as Rekha’.

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