Body piercing would be the prime focus of the legislation.
By Dileep Thekkethil
BENGALURU: The government of Kerala may soon pass an anti-superstition legislation to put an end to the archaic practices followed in the name of religion, said home minister Ramesh Chennithala on Wednesday.
The Home Minister, in a reply to K Sivadasan Nair, MLA, said that he is considering enacting a law to curb uncivilized practices like body piercing, including that of the children in the name of religious customs.
He also said that certain practices have been there since ages and these remain part of religious tradition. “They cannot be banned by law. They can be curbed only after arriving at a consensus in society by discussion,” he was reported as saying.
He also added that the government is planning to introduce a new legislation to stop superstition and cruel practices, something similar to the one introduced by the Maharashtra government.
Chennithala said that his government is ready with the draft of the legislation and hopes to introduce it in the assembly in the current session or the next.
In the last few months, many cases of deaths out of black magicians using cruel and uncivilized methods were reported from parts of the state. It is in this backdrop that the government decided to introduce a legislation to curb such practices.
Sivadasan Nair also urged the government to ban the body piercing practice followed across the lord Muruga temples in the state, where even children are subjects of such painful and scarring practice.
“Even small children are also subjected to such cruel practices’, he pointed out. ‘I do not think, any God will be happy by watching such a painful ritual.”