Religion is a concept that can give people hope, peace of mind and a sense of security to help them get through tough times. However, considering how it’s on the polar opposite end of science, mixing them up usually leads to catastrophic conclusions. As religion has an overbearing influence on almost everything in India, such situations keep happening from time to time. One of the recent examples is from Kolkata.
According to NDTV, a 14-year-old girl was brought to the NRS Hospital in Kolkata with 9 needles in her throat. The doctors thought she had swallowed them but a senior doctor revealed the ugly truth,
“It was later found out that the needles were actually inserted inside her throat from outside as a part of some kind of tantrik ritual.”
The needles were stuck inside the throat of Aparupa Biswas, a resident of Krishnanagar of Nadia district. She was obviously brought in by her family members but they were reluctant to say how the needles got their in the first place. But as questioning them wouldn’t solve anything, the doctors got on with their job and dedicated a painful three hours to take out those needles.
Once the painstaking procedure was over and the girl was out of danger, they approached her to know what happened. And the truth was really heart-breaking. A doctor who had talked with her said,
“After Their [the parents] son’s death, there was a change in the girl’s behaviour. After that the couple started consulting a tantrik.”
The couple in question had a son and had adopted Aparupa as their daughter. But they lost their son three years ago and noticed that the girl was affected by it. In layman’s terms, that’s usually called trauma or depression. However, the parents thought it was something else and took her to a tantrik.
Sadness, depression, anger, all of them are natural human emotions and consulting a psychiatrist isn’t something demeaning. That’s a notion that should be rectified. And on the other hand, all these tantriks should be treated like criminals because what they’re doing is dangerously close to murder. In addition to that, the psychological harm that they’re doing will take years to heal.