BY AJAY KUMAR SINGH
BHUBANESWAR: Top government officials in Orissa had to intervene to bury a Catholic girl in her village in the eastern India.
“The timely intervention of government higher officials helped the dalit parents to bury their child,” A. Harish, a Christian leader in the state, told ucanews.com on Nov. 3.
The 3-year-old girl developed some health complications and her parents admitted her in a hospital where she died on Oct. 31 of unknown complications.
The parents brought the girl’s body to Sonawadi, their village in Malkangiri district, for burial. However Hindus, who form the majority in the village, refused to allow them to bury the girl.
The parents complained to the local police and as they waited for the police action, the girl’s body began to stink.
Harish, spokesperson of the ecumenical All India Christian Council’s Bhubaneswar unit, said as soon as he heard about the incident he contacted the state’s director general of the police, who in turn ordered his subordinate to look into the matter.
The Hindu villagers finally relented and the parents could bury the girl’s body two days after her death.
Malkangiri is a district in the southern part of Orissa, bordering Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh states.
Harish cited the incident as an example of growing caste and religious divide in Orissa that witnessed unprecedented anti-Christian violence in 2008.