The Hindu : Karnataka News : Dropping babies: it is ’divine fall’ for these parents

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Dec 12, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka

Dropping babies: it is ’divine fall’ for these parents

Suresh Bhat

Bijapur district administration to put lid on the dangerous practice

101 babies were dropped from temple-top
NGO terms the practice ‘totally absurd’

Strange ritual: Babies being dropped from the rooftop of a temple in Nidoniin Bijapur district.

BIJAPUR: The Bijapur district administration appears to have finally woken up to the practice of babies being dropped from a height of 15 to 20 feet, a local ritual believed to appease the gods. A senior official has initiated moves to stop the practice.

The babies — between six months to two years — fall into a rug held just above the ground by a group of men. The latest instance occurred last week at the Shiva-Parvathi temple at Nidoni village near Bijapur. As the babies screamed in fright, the parents looked smug and unperturbed. The ritual was carried out at the annual “jatra” ( village festival).

Temple priest Sadashiva Shankrappa Kumbar said 101 babies experienced the “divine fall.”

Reacting to the practice, Shalini Rajneesh, Secretary, Department of Women and Child Welfare, said she had asked Deputy Commissioner V.B. Patil to curb the practice with immediate effect.

Vasudev Tolbandi, Director of the Ujwala Rural Development Society, a non-governmental organisation working with children, termed the practice “totally absurd.” Officials ignore such practices as they are religion-sensitive, Mr. Tolbandi said, adding that political will was necessary to end the ritual that toyed with the life of children.

L.H. Bidari, a paediatrician, said the practice was widely prevalent in the region. Babies are bound to suffer shocks when dropped in that manner, he said. Though he had not come across any case where a child had suffered serious and permanent damage, it was advisable to end the practice, the doctor said. People should be educated against such practices, he said.

Nidoni priest Kumbar said married couples who went childless for an extended period were usually the ones to take a vow to drop their newborn if ever they were “blessed” with a child. Women from the region who married men from “outside” were also required to drop their babies, Mr. Kumbar said. There were also many who came from outside the state to take part in the ritual, he said.

The priest claimed that there had never been any accident during the babies’ free fall.

One baby girl did fall to the ground instead of into the net but nothing happened to her, he claimed, adding that she was in her ninth standard now.

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