A woman in Madhya Pradesh was told to beg as penance after her calf was accidentally killed.
A 55-year-old woman was forced to beg for a week as penance for accidentally causing the death of a calf at a village in Madhya Pradesh's Bhind. The money she received would go towards financing a trip to the Ganges, where she was to take a dip as part of the penance, the village panchayat had ruled.
On August 31, Kamlesh, a resident of Matadin village, was trying to pull away a calf from its mother when the rope got entangled in its neck and the animal was strangled.
The local panchayat then ordered that she spend the week begging for money in nearby villages. Else, they said she would face social boycott for life. "They boycotted her for 7 days... She was not allowed to enter the village even," said her son Anil Shrivas.
Nobody, he said, had raised any objection for fear. His mother, he said, stayed with a relative at a nearby village and begged for money everyday till she fell sick and had to be admitted in a hospital. She was discharged yesterday.
But the panchayat chief denied issuing any diktat. "She herself called the panchayat members and told them that she had decided to do penance," said Shambu Shrivas, the panchayat chief.
No police case has been filed. The police have said they would take action once they receive the complaint.
"We have not received a complaint. If any complaint comes, we will definitely take action," said Anil Singh Kushwaha, an officer of the local police.
In July, an upper caste villager from a villager in Tikramgarh district was ordered to take a dip in Ganga - the traditional penance in the area - after he allegedly killed a cow in a fit of rage. The cow, which belonged to a lower caste man, used to raid his fields. Reports said Manoj Tiwari, 40, was later asked to organize a feast for the village as well.