Twarit Dukh: Khap Panchayat bars 5-year-old from entering her house for smashing a bird's egg

The police today booked ten members of a village community in the neighbouring Bundi district for allegedly declaring a five-year-old scheduled caste girl an "outcast" and depriving her of proper food, care and shelter, an official said.
The case was registered on the orders of the state's child rights panel chief Manan Chaturvedi who swung into action after the plight of the hapless child came to her notice.
Earlier, following a diktat by community elders, the girl was barred from entering her home, left to stay in the front courtyard and surviving on loaves thrown into her plate from a distance by her pregnant mother.
Hindoli Police station SHO Laxman Singh said the case was registered against ten persons today at 1.29 pm.
The girl was declared an outcast, initially for three days and then for another eight days, after she unwittingly damaged sandpiper's eggs in her school.
The girl was declared an outcast and ordered to undergo punishment according to a local superstition that breaking of the sandpipers' eggs was a bad omen and could deprive the village of rain.
The child's plight came to light after her father complained to the area 'tehsildar' (revenue official) that the community head was demanding costly wine and various snacks besides fodder for cows and edibles for fishes to end her ostracisation.