Shah Dola – The Story of the Rat Children

Have you ever called of the so-called Rat Children of Gujrat?  Every year, thousands of believers pilgrimage to Gujrat, which is a city in the north of Pakistan, where they pray in the Shah Dola shrine for offspring. If their wish becomes true and the woman delivers a baby, the family often returns to the shrine to sacrifice their first-born to the shrine, where it should grow up and dedicate his life to the god Shah Dola.  However, all the children left at the shrine grow up with physical and/or mental abnormalities. Most of them have a deformed head which also gives them the name Rat Children. Why they all have a rat-like face is quite controversy: The people working at the orphanage, where the children are kept, claim that all the children suffer from a genetic defect or a deficiency, while many others say that the deformation is caused deliberately by human intervention. Some scientists argue that the children at the shrine are forced to wear metal caps while they are still young. This does not only cause a deformed head but also might end up mentally disturbed as the high pressure damages the brain of the children. It is also said that the keepers of the shrine often search for disabled children in nearby villages and cities and take them away from their families. 

If not only this was hard enough for the children, they are also forced to beg at the shrine to collect alms, which are needed to finance the orphanage and the shrine. This is the only income (about 700 US $ per week – quite a lot for Pakistan) and also the government profits from it as they have been in control of the shrine since 1996. It may sound cruel but the harder the children’s disabilities are, the more they earn. It’s clear that no one dares to stand up for these poor children since political enemies are often banned from talking in public about the issue (This is also what happened to one of Pakistan’s top scientists, who investigated why the children suffer from such deformities).

 

Of course, life must be hard for the children living and begging at the shrine… But on the other hand, I think their life could be a lot worse as in this country disabled children are often locked up in their rooms because they are seen as a shame for the family… However, I think the government should try to improve the situation at the shrine and offer the children a better life in decent conditions.