India's Karnataka State to lose baby-tossing ritual

Digital Journal
 

It's a ritual that is supposed to imbue the participant with health and luck. The age of the participants is under two years of age, and Indian authorities are looking to shut it down.

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The ritual, said to be at least 100 years old, if not centuries old, is practised by both Muslims and Hindus participate in the ceremony, in which babies are dropped from a roof or a tower onto a cloth held by people below whilst others sing and dance. The Telegraph reports that there are 200 children "tossed" every year in India, although the practice is being cracked down on by the Karnataka Commission for the Protection of Children. State officials have enacted a ban on the ritual. The ritual is normally held during the beginning of December in Karnataka State. No babies have been reported as injured through the ceremony.

India, however, is not the only country that practices rituals or festivals that have long ago been stamped out in many other nations. In Spain, a Catholic-rooted ritual involves grown men jumping over babies in order to cleanse the infants of "evil." Parts of Africa practice what we call female genital mutilation. In South Africa, an annual ritual to ensure the fertility of agricultural crops is practiced, during which a bull is smothered to death. In Nigeria, ritual killing is a normal part of life.

Contributed by Gandolf