Nabarangpur: BASANT RATH.
In yet another shocking incident, five children aged
between 60 days and 7 months were branded with a hot iron rod in Pujariguda
village under Jharigaon block of Nabarangpur district on Saturday.
The anganwadi worker of the village came to know of
the cases during a routine health check-up programme and immediately intimated
to Supervisor Sandhaya Rani Mohankuda, immediately admitted the children to the
Umerkote hospital. All the children, who have been kept in the SNCU of the
hospital, are recuperating, hospital sources said.
The children are suffering in pneumonia, and were
first taken to public health centres at Jharigam for treatment by his family
members. As the ailment did not heal, family members took the children to the
village Disari, Dhan Singh, who branded them at over several places on their
body, reports said.
Despite
Nabarangpur district administration's awareness programmes and arrest of
Disaris (local faith healer), there seems to be no end to the menace of
branding infants with a hot iron for curing them of illnesses in this tribal
dominated district of Odisha. At least nine cases of branding of babies by
traditional healers have emerged in district within three months of an
awareness campaign against the practice.
It
may be mentioned here that to check recurrence of such incidents the district
administration had taken up an awareness programme for Disaris named Campaign
Jyoti.
Through
this program, all Disaris in the district were identified with an aim to make
them aware about the medical and legal implications of their superstitious
practices.
Recently
Nabarangpur district collector was honoured by the state government for this
innovative project. This incident has again hinted that much more has to be
done to end the menace.
