Milk, Motherhood & Market Value: Cows and Women in a Disposable Society

Unlearning the sugar-coated truths about Motherhood

Worshipped for motherhood, confined by it

You’ve seen them. Stray cows wandering the streets, nosing through garbage bins like forgotten relics of a society that once worshipped them. A sacred symbol turned street scavenger. It’s a sight so familiar, we’ve stopped seeing it.

But let’s zoom out.

India has over 5 million stray cows—that’s an entire Pune or Ahmedabad dumped on the roadside. Not a coincidence. Not bad luck.

It's design. It’s an industry. It’s capitalism wearing the mask of culture.

These cows are not strays by accident. They are byproducts—collateral damage of an economy that milks them dry (literally), then dumps them the moment they stop being profitable.

Here’s the dairy math:

Cows don’t magically produce milk. They give milk only after pregnancy. So, the artificially impregnated, often in an unsafe, unhygienic way. Their calves are snatched, especially if male (because they don’t bring profit). The mother mourns, then milks, then repeats.

When she stops producing enough, she’s no longer an asset. She’s a burden. So she’s let loose. Worshipped once. Forgotten forever.

But this isn’t just an animal story.

This… is a social metaphor in motion.

What cows and women have in common (unfortunately):

No, we’re not saying women are cows. We’re saying: society treats them with the same conditional reverence.

A woman, like the cow, is adored as long as she fits a role:

The mother who nurtures.

The wife who sacrifices.

The caregiver who doesn’t question.

The beauty who doesn’t age.

She’s put on a pedestal during festivals, hailed as “Devi” on Women’s Day, her strength hashtagged in Instagram captions. But the moment she stops serving the roles society expects of her—she’s sidelined.

A woman without children? Questioned.

A woman past reproductive age? Invisible.

A woman who speaks up? Dangerous.

A woman who stops giving? Unproductive.

Just like the cow that’s cast out when she can no longer lactate.

Think about it.

Milk and Motherhood: Expected, not chosen

We take what we need from both — milk, care, patience, and emotional labor — and when that need is met, we simply stop respecting them.

The cow is left to eat plastic on the street.

The woman is left to fade quietly into the background of a world that once couldn’t function without her.

They were never truly loved. Only used.

Sacred? Yes. Safe? Never.

It’s funny, isn’t it?

The cow is sacred. The woman is divine.

Yet both are expendable once their “usefulness” ends.

We glorify them as mothers but ignore their pain.

We romanticize their sacrifices but deny their rights.

We pray to them, then prey on them.

So the next time you see a stray cow—abandoned, skeletal, eating plastic—don’t just pity her. Recognize her.

She’s not just a victim of a broken system.

She’s the mirror reflecting the way we treat those who give, love, and nourish—until they stop serving a purpose.

It’s not about cows vs. women. It’s about waking up to a system that devalues life when it stops producing profit. And that should concern all of us.