Moment father balances daughter on bamboo pole in front of clapping audience
- 6 years ago
This is the shocking moment a father balances his daughter on a bamboo pole before hoisting her high in the air and catching her.
Footage captured on August 1 in Bagli, Madhya Pradesh, India, shows a man with the pseudonym Lakhan before a crowd of villagers as he performs the dangerous stunt for their entertainment.
Placing the four-year-old girl on the precarious-looking stick, he lifts her several metres in the air before throwing the pole to the wayside and catching her just inches before she hits the floor.
The villagers clap at the reckless stunt, which outraged the filmer, Ravi Mishra.
Photojournalist Mishra told Newsflare: "I spoke to Lakhan for as long as an hour and I was sad to see how adamant he was while justifying the act and risking his daughter's life, only to make ends meet.
"In a day, Lakhan earns 500 to 700 Rupees, which is a lot of money to be made in a village. The sight of a young girl being used as a means of entertainment, without any safety measure, is horrifying."
Mishra added that the act pushed him to inform a local NGO in the hopes of stopping such forms of entertainment.
But the real danger, he adds, is poverty.
He writes: "It is my humble and earnest appeal to everybody to not just paint a grim picture about such acts but, also stop and report them being performed in the name of entertainment, under the shadow of poverty."
Footage captured on August 1 in Bagli, Madhya Pradesh, India, shows a man with the pseudonym Lakhan before a crowd of villagers as he performs the dangerous stunt for their entertainment.
Placing the four-year-old girl on the precarious-looking stick, he lifts her several metres in the air before throwing the pole to the wayside and catching her just inches before she hits the floor.
The villagers clap at the reckless stunt, which outraged the filmer, Ravi Mishra.
Photojournalist Mishra told Newsflare: "I spoke to Lakhan for as long as an hour and I was sad to see how adamant he was while justifying the act and risking his daughter's life, only to make ends meet.
"In a day, Lakhan earns 500 to 700 Rupees, which is a lot of money to be made in a village. The sight of a young girl being used as a means of entertainment, without any safety measure, is horrifying."
Mishra added that the act pushed him to inform a local NGO in the hopes of stopping such forms of entertainment.
But the real danger, he adds, is poverty.
He writes: "It is my humble and earnest appeal to everybody to not just paint a grim picture about such acts but, also stop and report them being performed in the name of entertainment, under the shadow of poverty."