When children branded with hot iron to treat pneumonia

The most heinous and irrational and illogical incidents I encountered during my coverage is treatment of new born and small children through branding with hot iron. Many of the children died and many suffered.  It is not that government or hospitals are not doing anything but this is largely practised in the remote and rural villages of Bhilwara, Rajasmand, Tonk, Ajmer and Pali districts of the state.

Kudiya Kalan is a village of Rajasmand district- in 2019- I got the news that a three month old girl was branded with hot iron and was later taken to Mahatma Gandhi Government hospital of Bhilwara. The child was in critical condition. The child was having symptoms of Pneumonia and parents took the child to tantric rather than to hospital.  In the year 2019 alone, I encountered 9 such cases where children were branded with hot iron to treat them in Bhilwara district.

 I talked to the father of three month old girl child, Bharo lal of Kudiya Kalan village. He had his own superstition and said that it is normal. He said that his daughter was suffering from cold and fever. Villagers advised him to take the child to woman tantrik Dau Bai of his village because there was some shadow of black spirit on the child. Bharo Lal work as a construction labor and this was his first boy child in his family and therefore he was frightened by the concept of black spirits.

The child was taken to Tantrik Dau Bai that morning and she said that the child is having black spirit and later put hot iron rod in her stomach. When condition went worse, the child was rushed to hospital of Bhilwara.

In this matter, I really appreciate the then chairperson of district child welfare committee (DCWC) Suman Trivedi who initiated a campaign against this superstition but she failed as villagers called it as “Parampara (ritual). She also lodged many cases against parents and tantric but failed to make it mass education program. She also started helpline number and asked police and doctors working in rural regions to inform those who practise such witch craft.

Another case came from Bhilwara when 3 years old girl branded with hot iron in Beawar town of Ajmer and she was admitted later in hospital. Similarly two years old boy from Amli village of Baneda block of Bhilwara and many other cases came out which I reported in last three years.

The motive of this article is that when we feel proud to be oldest civilization on earth and feel proud that we have given cosmos theories to world (I am unknown to these theories) and we feel to be the best human race not only on this planet but in the whole Milky Way galaxy then such superstitions are proving that how backward and unscientific are the people of this land. I have no motive to degrade anyone but I feel that spreading rationality and logical perspective of life with scientific aptitude is the right religion for the right way of life.

I went inside the reasons of why parents (every parent love their children whether educated or illiterate) do so. Why they take their children for immense pain and to hurt to tantric rather than to hospitals. I talked to fathers, mothers and also to villagers and most of them took out their shirts and showed me the scar of branding hot iron on their stomach and they laughed and said, “It is a parampara.” 

 

Tradition to treat black wicked soul

It is ‘Parampara’ (Tradition) to have hot iron brand on stomach which work as vaccine in resident of rural part of the region. Parents who are taking their child to Tantrik to brand hot iron show their stomach that they too had the same scar on their stomachs. Branding hot iron is not a new thing in the region as the scar shows that they are safe from the black spirits. One of the villagers said the first sign of black spirit in the body came out when there is running nose and problem in breathing.

Suman Trivedi, former chairperson of district Child Welfare Committee Bhilwara told me that on ground level some public servants afraid to intervene in such dogmas because they do not wanted to make rounds to courts for evidence.  She registered many cases under non-bail-able sections.

 Activists working in these regions agree that such dogma and superstition is a tradition in the region and people feel proud to show their scar of hot iron brand on their stomach. “The main problem is that people do not have faith in medical and health services and rather they went to Tantrik. It should be a collective duty to eradicate such superstition.

As soon as a child find problem in breathing, parents take their them to tantric. One doctor told me that basically this in pneumonia and need treatment fast because the age of children are less than one year. There is a law in India against practicing occult but practically there is a large network of such tantriks active in remote rural areas.  I personally feel that right religion is to live in accordance with the truth and logic rather than following blindly to blind people.