Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Nabarangpur, Jun 25:

Barely a week ago, the poorest district in Odisha, Nabarangpur, was awarded with a cash incentive for spearheading the campaign against the perils of traditional healing. The horror of child branding is back as a less than two-month-old has been the latest victim of the superstition.

child branding

According to reports, a 55-day baby boy was branded with a hot iron nail after his parents—Juneyo and Geeta Harijan—took him to a local healer for treatment at Khuntiaguda village under Tentulikhunti block in the district two days ago.

The baby stopped taking food and had stomach bloating. Following this, the couple took the baby to the woman quack, Sunamani Das, who branded the child with a hot iron nail to cure him of the ailments.

As the condition deteriorated, the local ASHA worker rushed the baby to the Tentulikhunti Community Health Centre (CHC) and later shifted him to Nabarangpur district headquarters hospital.

The condition of the baby is said to be stable.

Meanwhile, the woman quack was arrested and forwarded to local court today.

“The Tentulikhunti CDPO received a complaint yesterday based on which we have registered a case against the quack. We have arrested the accused and further investigation is on,” a police official said.

Notably, a 68-day-long Jyoti campaign, a village-level awareness drive in all its 169 gram panchayats, was launched in the district which came to an end last month. For this, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had awarded a cash prize of Rs 15 lakh to the District Collector during the two-day District Collectors’ conference for the implementation of the campaign against fighting superstition.