An 8-year-old school girl died on Sunday after falling into a curry cauldron in Sambalpur, in Orissa State, India. The children were jostling for egg curry during the free-lunch hours when the incident happened.
Third-grade student Banita Kahnhar studied in a government-run school. She died of burn injuries. She was rushed to a local hospital and then shifted to a city hospital where she breathed her last breath.
“The girl had sustained 70 per cent burn injuries, most of which were of third degree, as she remained unattended on the cooking bowl for a long time,” a doctor at the SCB Medical College Hospital said, according to a Press Trust of India report.
The villagers, agitated after hearing news of the death, staged a road block.
The district administration paid 10,000 rupees ($155) for the cremation of the girl and said it would recommend the Chief Minister’s relief fund pay ex-gratia, reports PTI. The local administration has promised to employ the mother of the child as a cook for free-lunch in the same school.
