Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights panel bans chooral muriyal'
ALAPPUZHA: Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (KeSCPCR) has ordered Chettikulangara Devi Temple under Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) to stop the two-and-a-half-century-old chooral muriyal (breaking of cane) as part of Kuttiyottam ritual. The order, exclusively available with DC, came on a petition by human rights lawyer A. K. Rajasree citing the violation of child rights as it deals immense pain and torture to the children. The order warns of prosecuting the temple authorities and parents under the Juvenile Justice Act 2015.
The commission, which witnessed the ritual as a prelude to Kumbha Bharani festival on February 24, 2015, said two children aged below eight were symbolically bought from underprivileged families by devotees who offer Kuttiyottam to the deity. Asans or masters pierce either side of their abdomen with golden strings and needle and walked them towards the temple along with a cacophony of flute and slogans by the devotees.
It took hours for these children to reach the temple from the house of the person who offered Kuttiyottam, suppressing pain and dancing with the Asans holding their hands upwards not to touch the dangling strings. While children scamper due to pain, the people around them kept pouring coconut water fanning with palms toward the fissures. When children reached the temple, the elders pulled out the golden string from the bleeding wounds. And children, who surrounded by a bevvy of terrified devotees, were crying loud.
When the strings are pulled out, the legend says, the children would be sacrificed to the deity. The golden string would be offered to the temple. The panel, which met five children, all impoverished, observed that this kind of rituals should be abolished like ‘Sathi’. "It’s found that the rituals that make pain to the children’s mind or the body can’t be allowed to happen particularly as India becomes a signatory country of rights of child agreement passed by the UN General Council," the order says.
