The Rat Children of Shah Daula Shrine
The Rat Children of Shah Daula Shrine, Gujrat, Pakistan.
Shah Daula Shrine located in the heart of the industrial city of Gujrat in northern Pakistan, you can ask for anything and everything here, from a son to a business success and from a suitable court decision to a big car. If you ask for children, and the saint obliges, then you will have to give your first child to the saint, who will serve the shrine all its life. Thousands of the innocent children that have been left here by their devoted parents during the past four centuries live inhuman life. The caretakers of the shrine fix iron caps on their skulls and make them live with that till age 12. They don’t learn any language or manners, they are kept in seclusion with monkeys and other pets and they sleep and eat and live with animals, only to be known as "rats" (chuhas).
According to human rights groups, hundreds of young children are being exploited because of an ancient fertility tradition that leaves many children deformed and sold into begging.
Read MoreShah Daula Shrine located in the heart of the industrial city of Gujrat in northern Pakistan, you can ask for anything and everything here, from a son to a business success and from a suitable court decision to a big car. If you ask for children, and the saint obliges, then you will have to give your first child to the saint, who will serve the shrine all its life. Thousands of the innocent children that have been left here by their devoted parents during the past four centuries live inhuman life. The caretakers of the shrine fix iron caps on their skulls and make them live with that till age 12. They don’t learn any language or manners, they are kept in seclusion with monkeys and other pets and they sleep and eat and live with animals, only to be known as "rats" (chuhas).
According to human rights groups, hundreds of young children are being exploited because of an ancient fertility tradition that leaves many children deformed and sold into begging.
