Maya Devi, 28, made it in time to a hospital to deliver her baby at the Kanpur Medical College in Northern Uttar Pradesh state. The doctors, however, had other ideas. Devi is an “untouchable” and therefore the upper caste doctors refused to touch her and let both her and her baby die.

Devi made it into the Intensive Care Unit because of a heart attack but the doctors, including the chief superintendent, refused to help her because of her caste.

Dr. Kiran Pandey, head of gynecology at the hospital, rushed to the hospital but it was too late due to two cardiac arrests. Her boy died a little later — a second victim of India’s caste system.

So much for the theory that education tends to diminish the reliance on irrational religious and cultural beliefs.

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