The Rats Of Shah Daulah — How Toddlers Are Exploited In The Name Of Ritual

Rats of Shah Dola or Shah Daulah, the term is used for special children at the shrine of Shah Dola situated in Gujrat City, Punjab, Pakistan. Shah Dola was a saint belonging to Seherwardi School of thought from Aurangzeb's Era who has settled in Gujrat (Punjab, Pakistan). Shah Dola claimed that he had the power to punish the disobedient parents in the form of children with small heads. He used to put an iron cap on children and get them to help him by begging and getting him money. Those ill-fated children came to be known as or Dola Shah ke choohay (rats of Dola Shah).

Soon people started to believe that Shah Dola had the power to make infertile women fertile. It was said that those women who were blessed with children after praying at the shrine will donate their first born baby to shrine to be a “Rat of Shah Dola” or the rest of their children will be born disabled. And the women would ‘donate’ their first born to the shrine fearing that the rest of their children will be handicapped.

There are over 10,000 Rats of Shah Dolas in Pakistan. Most of them are in Punjab, especially in the city of Gujrat who beg for Shah Dola’s Shrine. This is a religious and charitable activity for children with microcephaly and mental disabilities, but their condition is misinterpreted as cranial deformation -- a sign of divine punishment.

Zika virus, a disease spread in Brazil and parts of the US spreading all over the world, wreaks havoc on the baby's brain, causing the skull to collapse in on itself. These babies are born with abnormal folds around their skull, and often with severe disabilities. Zika also causes a condition called microcephaly, in which an infant's head is significantly smaller than usual a disease is spread mostly by the bite of an infected Aedes species mosquito (Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus).

These mosquitoes bite during the day and night. Zika can be passed from a pregnant woman to her fetes. Infection during pregnancy can cause certain birth defects. There is no vaccine or medicine for Zika.

Is this a myth or a reality? Why is it that the results of the same disease have different symptoms and measures? In Europe it is being caused by a mosquito bite and in Asia it’s more commonly due to people donating their first child to the shrine of Shah Dola, where they place metal caps on their heads which results in this deformity which is a man-made problem, not natural. Why aren’t the European regions considering zika a curse of Shah Dola? Why are such superstitions only prevalent in our region? What if we stop practising this custom will it help resolving the issue? If this thing is not stopped today or if we don’t educate our people this custom would be passed down from generations to generations and the innocent toddlers will have to continue suffering from these deformities.