40% of Gujarat is non-vegetarian: Survey

AHMEDABAD: Around 40% of the population of Gujarat eats eggs or meat. The state has more non-vegetarians than states like Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab.
More men are non-vegetarians than women in the state. Government officials say 38% of women in the state are non-vegetarian. Proportionately, Gujarat is 55% more non-vegetarian than Rajasthan, the most vegetarian state in India, where only 25.1% are non-vegetarian.
Officials said this data is from the sample survey of 2014 and today the number may be much higher.
Gaurang Jani, a sociologist, said, “From Independence, Punjab has been a vegetarian state and it is also woven into religion. In Gujarat, we are yet to acknowledge the fact that the state has lots of non-vegetarians. Gujarat has a large coastline and from Surat to Kutch, the population along the coast and those involved in fishing are non-vegetarians. “The Koli community, adivasis and most OBC communities are non-vegetarians. These three groups make up the majority of the population and along minorities we can easily say that Gujarat is a non vegetarian state,” he said.
He said in past centuries, the elite of Gujarat imposed their food preferences and since then the state has been more vegetarian. “What is interesting that even entertainment has associated Gujaratis with dal-bhat (pulses and rice) and fafda and dhokla. As people tend not to disclose that they eat meat or eggs, the numbers are under-reported in surveys. We are yet to accept that we are a non-vegetarian state,”
The younger generation, irrespective of caste or community, consume non-vegetarian food. Many sects in Gujarat are advocating vegetarian food and are even against the eating of onion and garlic, he said. Consumption of non-veg food in Gujarat is on the rise, Jani said.
Meanwhile, there has been an increase in egg production in the state. Production of eggs in the state in 2019-20 was the highest ever, the socio-economic survey found. Egg production in Gujarat was 192 crore eggs in 2019-20.
Egg production increased from 185 crore in 2018-19 to 192 crore in 2019-20, according to the Integrated Sample Survey (ISS) of major livestock products, the survey found.
A state government report had stated that 43% of eggs produced in Gujarat are consumed within the state and the rest is sent to other states. However, Gujarat also gets eggs from neighbouring Maharashtra.