NEW DELHI – Two children were beaten to death in India for defecating inthe open, police said Thursday, underlining the violence sometimesunleashed to enforce Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s flagship cleanlinessdrive.
The children from the Dalit community, India’s lowest social castepreviously known as “untouchables”, were on their way to theirgrandfather’s house in the Shivpuri district in the central state of MadhyaPradesh on Wednesday.
“It was early morning and they had stopped to attend to nature’s call” whenthey were attacked, police inspector general Raja Babu Singh told AFP byphone.
“The kids were taken to the hospital but they succumbed to theirinjuries.”Two brothers had been arrested, one of whom appeared to be“mentally unsound”, Singh added.
Read Top Stories
Modi is set to declare India free of open-air defecation on Wednesday,coinciding with the 150th birthday of independence hero Mahatma Gandhi, whoalso campaigned vigorously for better sanitation. -APP/AFP
