Click to play videoJaipur: Another woman in Jaipur is now fasting till death to attain salvation. Called Santhara by the Jain community, this is the second woman to undergo such a spiritual fast.
Kela Devi, a 93-year-old woman from Jaipur has been on a terminal fast for a month now.
She has given up food, water and medicine with the intent of dying, a death she hopes to achieve so that she can attain Moksha (salvation).
Kela Devi's family says that this decision to attain Moksha by abstinence has been her own.
Says her daughter-in-law, Lad Devi, "She has given up food of her own accord and though we tried to talk her out of it for six days at a stretch, she says that she is near death and wants to attain salvation in her last days."
Kela Devi's case has surfaced just a day after 61-year-old Vimala Devi, who was suffering from brain tumor and blood cancer, died after taking up Santhara for fourteen days.
Sociologists believe that this practice is close to mercy killing which is illegal and shows the failure of institutions like family, society and state to take care of the elderly.
The Rajasthan High Court had already questioned the practice by issuing notices to the state, Central Government and various Jain religious groups before Vimala Devi died.
Says state Home Minister, Gulab Chand Kataria, "Though, I personally as a Jain sanction the practice, we will ultimately do only as per the directions of the court and will abide by the law of the land."
However, the Jain religious groups feel the court and the government must not intervene in into their religious matters. Meanwhile, the case is up for hearing in the High Court on October 5.
(With inputs from Shweta Ganesh Kumar in New Delhi)
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