Ritual and reality

What stunned the nation was that this 400-year-old custom, of 8216;burying8217; the kids for about 60 seconds, was performed in the presence of a delirious crowd which included Tamil Nadu8217;s minister for housing and urban development. His presence signalled an element of official patronage and complicity in this blood-curdling ritual. That the parents of the kids who did not fall unconscious were fined Rs 1,000 indicates the coercive nature of this macabre exercise. Therefore, for the police to wash its hands of the affair by arguing that there have never been any fatalities, and for the state government to keep silent in the face of national outrage, smacks of a shocking insensitivity. So far there have been no attempts to book the practitioners of this unholy ritual or ban the practice.

It is, indeed, no coincidence that most of the children subjected to the 8216;burial8217; were girls. Despite Tamil Nadu good showing in terms of human development indices, social backwardness continues to persist in several pockets of the state. For instance, the high incidence of female infanticide in a state where the child sex ratio had declined from 995 girls to a 1000 boys in the sixties, to 939 in 2001, has been a cause of great concern. The AIADMK government has undertaken a few attempts to tackle this unedifying trend 8212; its cradle baby scheme being one 8212; but unfortunately they have proved to be little more than mere tokenism. The recent incident must now prod the state government into demonstrating greater alacrity in addressing this issue. Punishing the minister who had participated in last week8217;s 8216;child burial8217; ritual would be a good beginning.