Remembering the fake news the western media put out regarding the "bat soup" and "fried bats", I really think it is demeaning to subject Indians to the same treatment.
A regular Indian person cannot be faulted for the failure of the government to provide basic education and reduce this kind of superstition. Even today, the literacy rate of India is behind China (despite having a historical economic head start), and looks even worse when comparing by gender (Women's literacy is only 60% or something like that). This is the sort of human rights issue that I presented to a certain forum member who insisted that democracy is somehow naturally better.
And not to sound like advocating for smearing yourself in sh*t, but since traditional medicine was brought up before...
What we know now about microbiomes vs. even as recently as 10 years ago, you can't discount making some kind of medical discovery from it. A (human) poop pill could save people from intestinal surgery...
The dried cow dung cakes are a traditional source of heating fuel. It is actually more environmentally friendly than chopping down trees for firewood. Cows eat mainly grass, which was the "holy grail" a few years ago for ethanol production (now kind of displaced by advances in battery production).
