Rajgarh (Madhya Pradesh): A strange curse haunts this sleepy village in Madhya Pradesh. Women in Sanka Shyam ji of Rajgarh mandal do not go for deliveries in the village for it is feared that the baby or the mother would die or be deformed.
It has been more than 400 years since any woman gave birth to a child in this village, 130 km from Bhopal. Women are not allowed to give birth in the village. They must leave the village and deliver their babies in hospitals or a room built outside the village, said the sarpanch of the village.
More than 90 per cent of deliveries are done in hospitals and in case of any emergency, a room built outside the village is used for the purpose, he said. Outsiders say that we are superstitious but it is a curse on our village, he added.
Further, he said that the village became cursed because a woman disrupted the construction of a temple in the village. The village elders said that during the 16th Century, when a temple was being built in the village, a woman was grinding wheat and this distracted the workers from proceeding with the work. It was then the Gods cursed that no woman in this village would be able to give birth to a baby, they said.
The also said that they had witnessed babies either dying or with deformity whenever there was an accidental or emergency delivery done in the village, earlier. The room outside the village was built to handle the emergency deliveries, the village elders added.
However, the villagers said none of them drank alcohol or ate meat, which they believe is a blessing to their village.
