Kodinhi: A village in India with over 400 twinsRaheel Mirza – New Delhi

You must have read famous dramatist Shakespeare’s play ‘Comedy of Errors’. If not, then you must have seen Bollywood’s famous lyricist Gulzar’s movie ‘Angoor’ based on the same play, which has many twins and identical characters.
If not this, then you must have seen Indian cinema’s famous actor Dilip Kumar’s film ‘Ram Aur Shyam’ or Hema Malini’s film ‘Sita Aur Geeta’ and if not this, then you have seen the films of Pakistani famous actor Sultan Rahi. Hee Hoon Gee has played twin and identical roles in more than 50 films.
If not, you might have seen twin brothers or sisters in your family or town. In fact, twins and isomorphisms are part of nature’s system, but they seem to happen rarely. While it benefits and harms us, others are often misunderstood and ridiculed.
Anyway today we take you to a village where there are more than 400 twins. You might not believe it! But the village of Kodinhi in Mallapuram district of the southern Indian state of Kerala is one such village.
While people are convinced of the beauty of this village based on 2,200 families, they are also concerned about the number of twins born here.
For doctors all over the world, it is no less than a mystery which they have been trying to solve for a long time.
Loreda Madrigal, an anthropologist at the University of South Florida, considers Kodinhi to be an ‘otherworldly region’. He has researched it.
Experts are surprised by the unusual trend of twin births in the village, which is almost seven times higher than the global average.
In 2008, women there gave birth to 300 healthy babies, out of which 15 women gave birth to twins. According to the birth statistics department, 60 twins have been born in Kodinhi village in the last five years. And it turns out that the number of twins is increasing with each passing year.
The Muslim-majority village is surrounded by backwaters and has only one road connecting it to the city. According to Lorida Madrigal, it has nothing to do with religion. In this village there are people of all three sects, Hindus, Muslims and Christians, but this village cannot be given any single identity.
Kerala-based Dr. Krishnan Sribiju, who is interested in the study of twin births, has been trying to figure out the secret behind the high number of twin births in Kodinhi for many years.
They believe that the actual number of twins in the village is much higher than the number officially recorded in the papers. Dr. Sri Biju says: ‘I think there are about 450 to 500 twins within the village boundaries of Kodinhi.’
The villagers say that the incidence of twin births started three generations ago. According to a report by the Press Trust of India, the first twins were born in this village in 1949. But since then it has been increasing.
But Dr. Sri Biju, speaking to The Times of India, enthused: “According to my knowledge, this medical miracle started between 60 and 70 years ago.”
But there has been no research on them as to why this is happening in such a large number. He said that in his opinion it must have something to do with the food and drink of the villagers.
He said that the surprising thing is that the number of twins is increasing with each passing year. I think the number of twins in Kodinhi has doubled in the last 10 years.
Considering the low rate of twin births in India, Dr. Sri Biju says it is surprising that an Indian village has such a high number of twins.
According to the National Institutes of Health, multiple births account for about three percent of all births in the world, and it is also the cause of 14 percent of infant deaths. The worldwide rate of multiple or multiple births began to decline in the 1950s and reached its lowest level in the 1970s, but has been steadily increasing since then.
The global rate of twin births is said to have increased due to artificial insemination, particularly in the Western world.
Also, twins are usually born to older, more mature women. But this is not the case in Kodinhi as the average age of marriage is 18-20 years and the strategy of delaying childbearing after marriage is not even addressed.
Highlighting another important reason behind the birth of twins, Dr. Biju said that generally, women whose height is less than 5 feet 3 inches are more likely to have twins or multiples. and the average height of women in Kodinhi is 5 feet.
Kodinhi is now known as ‘Twin Town’ or ‘Town of Twins’ in India. Although scientists are curious about it, it doesn’t matter much to the Kodinhi people.
However, recently they have set up an organization called ‘Twins and Kin Association’ (Taka) to register and provide support to twins and their families. This organization provides education to village twins and support to their families.