IN 2004, WHEN Danmanti Devi was four years old, her mother took her to see a doctor because of pains in her legs. The doctor wrongly diagnosed polio. He could do no more than prescribe painkillers. Danmanti's legs are now deformed. Many others in Churaman Nagar, heri4o-household hamlet of mud huts and a few "pukka" brick houses in rural Bihar, one of India's poorest states, also hobble on the knock knees or bow legs characteristic of a condition known as skeletal fluorosis. She is one of millions of Indians to suffer this, and to have contracted it merely from drinking water containing dangerous levels of fluoride. She is a victim of the over-exploitation of India's groundwater. Fluoride, like arsenic, is present naturally in groundwater. It is harmless (or even beneficial) in small concentrations. The World Health Organisation (who) suggests a limit of 1.5 milligrams per litre. In Churaman Nagar, the water that comes from standpipes overseen by the local panchayat (village council) has 16mg. The hamlet's inhabitants are among India's most downtrodden. They are dalits, once called "untouchables", at the bottom of the Hindu caste system. They eke a living as wage labourers in nearby brick kilns or by distilling moonshine.
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