Punjab –the Land of Milk and Honey no more?

When I was growing up and we came home to our village for the winter holidays, I recall it used to be boasted that the milk was so pure (from cows and/or buffaloes that we owned) that not a drop of water had been added to it. I also recall my father’s lament when the first milk collection centers were established in support of the state’s dairy development scheme. Hi comment: “This is going to ruin the health of the people in the villages”. His argument was that people will start selling the last extra drop of milk for cash, depriving the children and other family members of milk, butter, ghee, curd and lassi. The money they earn will be spent on consumer goods, more expenditure at weddings, more clothes etc. The poor would suffer because they would no longer have access to the surplus “lassi” or milk from the better off households.

While the milk has been diverted from rural areas to meet the demand from the urban areas, the milk for cash culture has bred other evils. There have been reports of milk adulteration for many years. A couple of years ago, it was reported that over 90 percent of milk samples taken from private milk sellers or “dhoodh wallahs” were found to be adulterated. Now, Anil Kaura of the Tribune reports that “synthetic” milk is surfacing in Punjab in a big way. According to the report, urea, caustic soda, cheap cooking oils and commonly used detergents are used to prepare synthetic milk. Refined oil is used as a substitute for milk fat and detergents are added to emulsify and dissolve the oil in water and give this “milk’ its white color. The report also adds that synthetic milk is mixed with natural milk and is sold to consumers at Rs 10-Rs 15 per litre whereas the cost of producing it is less than Rs 3 per litre.

It is a shame that in the state known all over for its milk based diet and for its robust population, milk should become such a tarnished commodity. Could it be that this is also linked to the high rates of stunting and malnutrition among children and women in Punjab? After all, availability of milk in a rural household was always a marker of its overall well-being.