NHRC sends notice to Karnataka government over 'cruel' practice of neck-deep burying of children in pits

Concerned over the "weird, unethical and cruel" practice of burying children neck-deep in compost pits to cure their deformities in Karnataka, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Monday asked the state government to provide details of action taken to curb such rituals.

The Justice H L Dattu-led Commission action came following a media report about the children with special needs being subjected to the practice believing that exposure to sharp rays during a solar eclipse will cure them of their deformities.

Such incidents were reported from three villages in Taj-Sultanpur on the outskirts of Kalaburagi town and Ainolli and Gadi-Lingadalli villages in Chincholi Taluk. The district child protection task force had rescued the children following a tip-off.

The NHRC felt that such rituals "tantamount to violation of human rights" of the victim children and there is a need to sensitise the authorities as well as the parents of such children.

"The ritual appears weird, unethical and cruel towards poor kids, who are being treated with indignity in the name of faith. Today, when medical science is progressing and very complicated surgeries are being conducted in the country itself, the young children with deformities require medical care and treatment and not such kind of inhuman practice, which not only subjects them to humiliation but may also cause a kind of inferiority complex," it said.

"A child who would suffer such trauma will find it definitely very hard to overcome its adverse impact. It will be a nightmare for him/her throughout life," it said.

Asking the state government to respond within six weeks, the NHRC notice said it would like to know whether the ritual is practised in places other than Kalaburgi in the state. In its report, the state will also have to explain whether it has issued any guidelines on the subject.

"The Chief Secretary of the State is expected to look into the matter personally," it said.

On holding awareness campaigns, the NHRC said it was not advisable to organise such camps in villages during Covid-19 pandemic but local authorities could use the help of media and various digital modes like video conferencing to spread the message about the impact it could have on children's minds.

Quoting the media report, the NHRC said the children remained buried in the pits for the full duration of the solar eclipse in the re-run of a similar incident reported a decade ago. Reports also said an orthopaedic surgeon Dr S Kamareddy, a resident of Kalaburgi, has offered to perform the rectification surgeries on children, without any cost.