Dehumanising ritual

The marriage'' of a little girl to a dog, conducted in all seriousness by her parents in the presence of the village community, is a rem...

The 8220;marriage8221; of a little girl to a dog, conducted in all seriousness by her parents in the presence of the village community, is a reminder of how far social attitudes still need to change before children, and especially girls, come to be recognised as individuals with rights and are treated with dignity.

The bizarre ritual in the village of Haringhata is also a reminder of the vice-like grip of superstition from which social reformers going back two centuries have tried to free people by appealing to common sense and rationality. Four-year old Anju Karmakar8217;s fate may not be identical to that of children who, as still occasionally reported, are sacrificed in order to change a family8217;s fortunes. But it comes close to it.

To ritually dehumanise a little girl by relegating her to the status of an animal is a most cruel practice. It must be strongly condemned. Even though the intention may have been, absurdly, to free her from a run of bad luck, even though she continues to live at home and be cared for by her parents, the experience will surely leave her with an enduring sense of inferiority.

The other tragedy is that the perpetrators of this cruelty are poor, illiterate but well-meaning parents. Appalled by barbaric practices and superstition which many people who did not know better claimed were legitimised by religion, Pandit Nehru used every opportunity to exhort Indians to cultivate a scientific attitude of mind. He was right to do so.

But exhortation is not enough. From his time until now one of the essentials for inculcating a rational approach to the world are not in place, namely, a system of universal education with emphasis in curricula on rational thinking. Even fifty years after independence almost half the adult population remains illiterate; with the still low enrollment rates for secondary education, the prospects for educating vast numbers of the population look grim.

It is not that the solutions are unavailable; policy-makers know well what needs to be done. What is missing is the political will and pressure from the educated and well-heeled classes.

There are hundreds upon hundreds of Haringhatas all over the country with monumental contrasts, where science lives cheek by jowl with superstition, cable TV with illiteracy, schools with no learning. All that is bad enough. What is worse is the backsliding, the increasing resort to mumbo-jumbo and the harking back to inhuman practices in the guise of religion. Anju8217;s parents had the excuse of illiteracy.

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Ostensibly educated people who uphold practices like sati, those who fall back on religious justifications for gender and social inequalities, have no excuse whatever. Then there are those who resist change and cling to old attitudes and past practices no matter how unequal and harmful they are to individuals in society. That is where reform is urgent. Local administrators can be a force for change but are often reluctant to do anything even when a few words of admonition could change lives.

Cautious intervention by the sub-divisional officer in whose jurisdiction Haringhata falls might well have rescued little Anju from a shameful tamasha.