In a bizarre ritual, a couple kept their nine-month-old son buried chest deep in a compost pit during the partial solar eclipse, hoping to cure him of his disability, in Hulsoor village on Wednesday.
Basavaraj Ankalkote, a gold craftsman, and his wife Sangeetha, kept their son Eshwar in a pit of sheep and goat droppings for two-and-a-half hours during the solar eclipse on Wednesday morning. The couple waited for the eclipse to end, while looking at their child crying in the heap of stinking compost.
“Someone told us it would cure him of his deformity,” Basavaraj told The Hindu . Now that the two-hour ordeal has not healed the boy, does he still believe in the advice? He is not sure. “I don’t know. My well-wishers are telling me we made a mistake. They say it is blind belief. They are telling me not to repeat it,” he said. Mallikarjun, Basavaraj’s brother-in-law, said they would not do no such a thing in future.
Sangeeta however believes the compost pit treatment during the eclipse has helped the boy. “He seems to have improved,” she said. She said they were so desperate to cure the child that they were willing to try everything. “We have taken him to doctors in Umarga in Maharashtra and Basavakalyan. But his condition did not improve then. But now, he seems to have improved,” she said.
A government doctor in Basavakalyan confirmed that the child did not suffer from polio. He said it was some congenital deformity and that corrective surgery could help the boy. Sangeetha said she was willing to consult a surgeon if she got a chance to do so.
As the news spread on Thursday, Sri Channaveera Shivacharya Swami of Harkud Math and Sri Shivanand Swamy of Hulsoor Math went to the house of the Ankalkote couple in Basavakalyan and urged them to drop blind belief regarding eclipses. They also told them that keeping children in such unhygienic places would lead to infection.
A team of rationalists would visit Basavakalyan later this week to create awareness against the blind belief associated with eclipses, Shashidhar Kosambe, member, Child Welfare Committee, said.
Chaman Bi, Women and Child Welfare department nodal officer, would also visit the couple on Friday, officials said.
