India's Poor Urged to 'Eat Rats'

[Imua 0]

BBC NEWS

India's poor urged to 'eat rats'

By Amarnath Tewary

BBC News, Patna

An official in the Indian state of Bihar has come up with a new idea to encourage low caste poor people to cope with food shortages - rat meat.

The Principal Secretary of the state's Welfare Department, Vijay Prakash, said that he was advancing his proposal after "much survey and ground work".

Bihar's extremely poor Musahar community are rat-eaters by tradition.

The Musahar are on the bottom strata of the caste system with the lowest literacy rate and per capita income.

Less than one percent of their 2.3 million population in Bihar is literate and 98% are landless.

Delicacy

Mr Prakash says his proposals to popularise rat meat eating are intended to uplift their social-economic condition.

People now prefer to eat rat meat instead of chicken or goat as it comes cheaper and is more tasty and healthy

Vijay Prakash

"There are twin advantages of this proposal. First, we can save about half of our food grain stocks by catching and eating rats and secondly we can improve the economic condition of the Musahar community," he told the BBC.

According to Mr Prakash, about 50% of total food grain stocks in the country are eaten away by rodents.

He argues that by promoting rat eating more grain will be preserved while hunger among the Musahar community will be reduced.

He said that rat meat is not only a delicacy but a protein-enriched food, widely popular in Thailand and France.

"Rats have almost no bones and are quite rich in nutrition. People at large don't know this cuisine fact but gradually they are catching up."

However he may find it difficult to popularise such a strategy in a conservative society like Bihar and other north Indian states.

Mr Prakash says that he has recipes to make rat eating a delicacy, which he now wants to distribute to all the hotels in Bihar.

He also wants to encourage rat farming in the same way that poultry is farmed.

While eating rat meat is still stigmatised in urban areas of the country, Mr Prakash says that his research has revealed that it is a popular food item in some parts of Bihar where it is known at roadside hotels by the name of "patal-bageri".

This is not the first time that the department secretary has come out with such an innovative idea.

Earlier, he proposed to recruit eunuchs as security guards to maternity wards in hospitals.

"Yes, that proposal is in its advance stage and we'll very soon engage them in various social activities of our department," he said.

And the welfare secretary's next plan?

"I'll make snake catching popular for the economic value of its venom," he said.

Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7557107.stm

'Musahar' literally means 'rat eater'. There are also tribal groups in southern Nepal near the Indian border who eat rats, and parrots

[Mononoke28 137]

The guy from "Bizarre Foods" says they're deeelish!

Diana

[Saddle Bronc 124]

...

'Musahar' literally means 'rat eater'. There are also tribal groups in southern Nepal near the Indian border who eat rats, and parrots

I've seen video documentaries of LEF which show bazaar scenes from northeastern Indian cities such as Guwahati, Imphal, Itanagar,...--where krait (poisonous snake related to cobra, but hoodless) is sold.

And tinned rattler is sold oft in TX (I've seen it in Dallas Kroger & Tom Thumb)

Edited August 14, 2008 by CherryXS

[HAL 9000 96]

Hey its done in China. Why not in India.

Perhaps we could get into the business as well. Instead of poisoning our rats we could sanitize them at rat farms and then ship them over for dietary consumption elsewhere.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Doesn't this remind anyone of that Jonathan Swift satire? A treatise on how people can overcome food shortages and poverty by eating their *spare* children.

[*JG* 2]

The guy from "Bizarre Foods" says they're deeelish!

Diana

I love that guy. And, yeah, I can't think rats are any worse then some of the stuff he eats on there.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

deleted

Edited August 14, 2008 by A.J.

[HAL 9000 96]

Doesn't this remind anyone of that Jonathan Swift satire? A treatise on how people can overcome food shortages and poverty by eating their *spare* children.

A Modest Proposal.

Whiskey-tainted childmeat. YUM!

[2ond journey 0]

[Imua 0]

BEN!!!!!!!

[Mononoke28 137]

Hey they eat guinea pigs in Perú and Colombia and they're cuter.

Diana

[HAL 9000 96]

And Nutria in the USA!

[trinket 30]

My only concern is plague but then even one can get sick through other red or white meat.

Actually eating rat is better than eating seeds as pickle, there was a documentry about Orissa's (a state in India) Kalahandi district, where shortage of food was so much that they were relying on some seeds of a tree.

[Peikko 1,575]

I agree with number 6 and I also wonder where they got the idea that rat meat was popular in France.

Now, if the higher indian caste were to have a 'rat eating' day to promote the popularity of rat meat and show us just how 'superior' rat meat eating could be, then I might view this suggestion with a little bit more charity.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Now, if the higher indian caste were to have a 'rat eating' day to promote the popularity of rat meat and show us just how 'superior' rat meat eating could be, then I might view this suggestion with a little bit more charity.

That was basically the content of my deleted post, but I was unable to say it quite that politely.

Bihar is known for its caste-based politics. There is no way there's not a caste angle to this story.