TWIN TOWN KODINHI @ KERALA INDIA

220 twin-births
in one village in India

     Attention has been globally drawn towards an isolated town in Kodinhi in India these days.It is because the largest number of twin-births in the world has taken place in this village sorrounded by water right round. The village of Kodihin is connected to the other part of the world only from a narrow strip of land which runs over to the town of Tiruveragai.

     Attention of doctors have been drawn these days to unravelling the marvellous secret of how these 220 twins came into being where about 2,000 families live.

     There were 15 twin-births among 2,000 normal, healthy births in the year 2009. During the last 5 years there were 60 twin-births for an year and the number had kept escalating year after year, with the number of such twin-births rising in the year 2009. A provincial doctor and Dr.Krishna Siribiju who shows great interest in these miraculous births are involved in a study of how this dramatic phenomenon of such an increase of twin-births take place for 2 years. Though the number of registered births in this village is 220, Dr.Krishna says that the number could be much more than that. He says that according to his medical knowledge, that figure could be somewhere in the region of 300 and 350.

     Births of twins have doubled in the last 10 years. Villagers say that this type of twin-births began to take place 3 generations before. According to Dr.Krishna, twin-births have begun to take place in this Indian village 60 - 70 years ago.

    Whatever it is, the earliest born twins living in Kodnhi village have been born in 1949. He says, "I can't say why such wonderful twin-births take place in this village without conducting a proper medical examination. But I suspect that it could happen due to some particular thing that they eat or something they drink which has contributed towards this". He goes on to say,"There maybe a number of reasons for twin-births. But permit me to talk about the speciality in Kodihin". The list of points in Dr.Krishna's list is many. "According to normal acceptance of medical acceptance, about 3 twin-births take place for every 1,000 births. But when considering twin-births in this village it can be considered as 45 for every 1,000 births. Though most twin-births normally take place among matured mothers advanced in age too, these villagers enter into wedlock while they are about 18 - 20 years of age. The other factor is that normally twin-births take place among females of a height of 5'3". But the height of these women does not exceed 5 feet.

     Because of the miraculous twin-births itself, the village of Kodihin has come to be known as 'the town of twins' and because of this fantastic twin-birth phenomenon, a welfare association too has come into being known as twin and relations taka. A proud father of 2 twins and the president of the Taka Association, 50 year old Piyulani Baskaran says that Taka was founded and registered in order to help twins and those of the families in the village.     According to a census carried out in 2008, there was a population of 2,000 villagers here. They were Sunni Muslim nationals. During the last 5 years, there had been 220 twin-births and 2 births of triplets. Of these twin-births, 79 are of the age group of 0 - 10 years.

Lakbima article -- Peter Canute Perera.