Baby Dropping Ritual - Dangerous tradition in Solapur, India

In an annual event, infants are thrown off the roof of the Baba Sheikh Umar Saheb Dargah to thank God for blessing couples with a child. This ritual, which attracts many devotees from across the country, is believed to be good for the health of the child. The infants are initially carried over to the terrace (approx 15 meters hight) in small bags by a devotee. One after the other, the infants are then dropped from there, and others standing below hold a blanket to catch the falling kid. The event was reported first in 2008. In 2009, the event received a lot of national and international press coverage and was criticised by many child and human rights groups. This ritual has been done for over 500 years