Those who help in sacrificing animals during Eid-ul-Azha do not want to be known as butchers and desire to be called meat workers instead.
Several involved in cutting and selling fresh meat in the city say that since their task includes sacrificing, skinning, eviscerating and then neatly cutting the meat as per preferred size, they should not be called butcher because it has a negative connotation.
The meat trade is linked to the economy of Bangladesh and it’s being exported abroad, therefore, there is a unanimous call for people engaged in this trade to be known as meat workers.
One meat seller says: “We do not care for the term butcher, which means a killer.”
Secretary general of meat traders association, Rabiul Alam, adds: “I have been writing on this for thirty years; we do not kill anyone and we do not even cut the animals, that is done by others.”
Our trade licence also mentions ‘meat trade’ and since we cut and sell meat, we should be called meat traders of meat workers, he asserts.
“There has been plenty of changes in name of professions. We do not use barber but hair stylist and in the same manner, our trade has to be called so it does not sound usavoury.”