In yet such shocking incidents, as many as five children aged between two and seven months were branded with a hot iron rod at Pujariguda village under Jharigam block of Nabarangpur district on a single day on Saturday.
The Anganwadi Worker of the village came to know of the cases during a routine health checkup programme and immediately intimated to Supervisor Sandhaya Rani Mohankuda. The children were immediately admitted at the Umarkote hospital. All of them, who have been kept in the SNCU of the hospital, are recuperating, hospital sources said.
The children, who are suffering from pneumonia, had earlier beeen taken to the Public Health Centre at Jharigam for treatment by family members. As the ailment did not heal, the family members took the children to the village Disari Dhan Singh, who branded them at over several places on their bodies, reports said.
Despite the Nabarangpur district administration’s awareness programmes and arrest of Disaris (local faith healers), there seems to be no end to the menace of branding infants with a hot iron for curing them of illnesses in the tribals-dominated district. At least nine cases of branding of babies by traditional healers have emerged in district within three months of the awareness campaign against the superstitious practice.
It may be mentioned that to check recurrence of such incidents, the district administration has taken up the awareness programme named ‘Campaign Jyoti’.