Open Your Eyes through Education!
May 20, 2011 4 Comments
A mother was so anxious about her only child’s sickness. She did not know what she could do for him. She was so poor and helpless. She had not enough money to give her child a better medical treatment. However, it was not possible for her to tolerate her child’s sufferings anymore. From her neighbor, she heard that there was a woman in nearby village who was famous in that area to cure people by exorcise. In return, she just received money or gold. The mother was so convinced by her neighbor’s words that she went to that village to meet with that woman. The woman told her to bring her child in her room and lock the door. The mother did so. The woman took a broom and thrashed the child with it. The child was only six years old. He was very sick to tolerate the pain of beating by the broom on him. The mother asked the woman why she beat her child in such a rude way. The woman told her that she was doing so because that child was possessed by an evil spirit and that was why he was not cured for a long time. She was beating him to frighten away that spirit as if it would go away from the child. She beat the child about fifty times. When the sick child became senseless, she told the mother she accomplished her task to run away the evil spirit. The mother gave her one thousand taka which she saved for her child through her hardship. The mother trusted the woman, but it was shocking to her when her child died at night.
It is just an imaginary story.I got the idea for writing this story from the first chapter of the autobiography Growing Up Untouchable in India by Vasant Moon where Ragho’s wife betrayed the woman as she possessed by Matamai, a goddess, because they were not educated to catch her trick. Still in many areas in this world, many uneducated, poor people are constantly being betrayed by some persons who present themselves as powerful to give them the solutions of disease or personal problems. They are used to tricking simple and uneducated people for earning money. However, the consequence of that type hypocrisy is dangerous. If we do not fulfill the theme of the slogan ‘education for all’, various superstitions and awkward beliefs among the uneducated people will lead them into the black world where they cannot see anything with their open eyes.