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Dahi Handi Festival: Important Topics for UPSC Exams

What is it?

It is one of the festive events and a team sport during the Hindu festival Gokulashtami.
It is also known as Krishna Janmashtami in the rest of the country, and celebrates the birth of Krishna.
It is popular in Maharashtra and nearby regions of India.
The event involves making a human pyramid and breaking an earthen pot filled with milk, curd, butter, fruits and water which is hung at a convenient height, thus imitating the actions of child Krishna.

As per the Journal of Postgraduate Medicine report of 2012 "There is a considerable risk of serious, life-threatening injuries inherent to human pyramid formation and descent in the Dahihandi festival"
Traffic Congestion and excessive littering.
Sound pollution.
Height of the earthen pot (Matki) many a times causes tragic accidents and recently Supreme Court prescribed some guidelines for it. However, it was not followed in some places.
Number of injuries due to such event is increasing due to rising competitions among groups to reach the top first.

2014: Children below the age of 12 were banned from participation by the government of Maharastra.
2014: Bombay High Court ruled that minimum age should be raised to 18 years and height of the pyramid should be no more than 20 feet for safety reasons.
2016: The Supreme Court upholds the directives of the Bombay High Court but various organizations have re-appealed on different legal grounds. They state that Olympic sports are dangerous and cause injuries too, but that is not sufficient grounds to ban Olympic participation. Banning a religious tradition, they state, infringes on the religious rights of a particular community.