In a shocking incident, three children with disabilities in Kalaburagi district's Taj Sultanpur village were buried neck-deep in goat dung by their family members in the hope that doing so during a solar eclipse will cure them.
The incident came to light at 9 am on Thursday morning when activists working with the Janwadi Mahila Sangatane rushed to the spot to rescue the children.
A four-year-old child was unconscious by the time she was rescued while two other children, aged 8 and 11 were also buried neck-deep.
"All the children rescued are currently being treated in a hospital. The children were buried in neck-deep due to a belief among the village residents that doing that during a solar eclipse will cure them of their physical problems," a police official at Gulbarga Rural Police Station told TNM.
Activists involved in the rescue said that no cases were registered in connection with the incident. Ashwini Madankar of the Janwadi Mahila Sangatane told EdexLive that the parents come from poor households who resorted to the step of burying their children after hospital treatment did not help. She said that the parents did not mean to hurt the children and only wanted them to walk around freely.
Police officials at Gulbarga Rural Police Station said a case will not be registered unless a complaint is made by the activists.
Commenting on this, rationalist Narendra Nayak said, “Around ten years ago, we came across a case of children with polio buried neck-deep in a Kalaburagi village. It is terrible because the children could have been asphyxiated since they were prevented from breathing. They were also unable to move and there is a fear created in them.”