Superstitions takes hold of childless couples

Childless couple shaved off bark of a mango tree 

The power of superstition has taken hold of childless couples in Adilabad district. Many believe that if they ingest the juice of the bark of a tree from which a person committed suicide by hanging himself and also tie pieces of the bark of the same tree on their person, the woman would  conceive.

This blind belief in hearsay has been leading childless couples to procure the bark of the person hanged himself, the whole operation having to be clandestinely done as there is still so much social stigma associated with being childless.

Roopchand of Kalvathanda in Dilawarpur mandal said that when his uncle Rathod Yashwanthrao, committed suicide by hanging himself- due to inability to repay the mounted debts and failed crops- a childless couple had shaved off  the bark of the mango tree from which he had hanged himself.

Roopchand said, he had done this too after an elderly woman hanged herself at the outskirts of the village, and he had his wife were blessed with two children.

Medical experts have been decrying such recourse to blind superstition and  suggesting that the authorities concerned create awareness among the rural people on staying away from irrational methods and go in instead for medical treatment for infertility.