Indians Charged for Burying Children Alive

[emad]

Thu Apr 14, 2005 09:16 AM ET
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Indian police have charged 80 people for burying children alive in an ancient Hindu ceremony known as "the festival of pits."

The ceremony, in which children -- some less than a year old -- are buried alive briefly and then dug up, happened on Monday in southern Tamil Nadu state, The Asian Age reported on Thursday.

Authorities have been trying for years to stop it and people found guilty face up to three years in jail and or a fine of 5000 rupees ($114).

Every two years, parents who have vowed to bury their first-born if they are blessed with a child, take part in the Kuzhimattru Thiru Vizha ceremony.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=8181709

[Divameow77]

1. Up to 3 years in jail

for attempted murder, that's tough.

[jilln]

2. Did you read the article?

It might be distasteful and dangerous and primitive and a lot of other things, but it is not attempted murder. That comment sounds like the current government, for whom liberating animals from a fur farm is terrorism.

[Divameow77]

3. I understand that it's technically not attempted murder

but it sounds reckless and could cause the death of a child, and it sound illegal if you can serve jail time for it.
I lived across the street from a snake handling church in Georgia and more then once a child (and adults) were bitten by poisonous snakes and died, there were charges along the lines of murder, manslaughter, or child endangerment at least, and they were practicing relious freedom.

[Taxloss]

4. I wonder if the same principle should be applied to baptisms

in rivers. You know, submerging a small child briefly in a river. Personally, I see the baptisms as harmless as long as they're done by people who know what they're doing and nothing goes horribly wrong, so presumably that ethic should apply to the Indian rite.

ON EDIT: The drugging makes the burials worse, I think.