A woman born with 31 fingers and toes has spent her entire life hiding at home after being branded a witch by cruel neighbours.
Not sure this is the kind of world record anyone wants to hold.
But Kumari Nayak, a 63-year-old Indian woman, has got a firm grip on the Guinness World Record for most fingers and toes.
Kumari, who was born with polydactylism, a birth defect that occurs early in a pregnancy, has a total of 31 digits — 19 toes and 12 fingers — and has booted fellow Indian Devendra Suthar from the record book. Suthar held the previous record with 28 digits, 14 finger and 14 toes.
“I was born with this defect and could not be treated because I belong to a poor family,” she said, according to the Daily Mail. “It has now been 63 years that I have had this condition. I am forced to stay indoors as I am being treated differently, which is not a nice way of treatment from my neighbours.”
Indeed, some of the villagers in Kadapada, where Kumari lives, believe she is a witch because of the condition.
“This is a small village and people here are superstitious and so treat her like a witch,” a friend said, according to the Daily Mail. “I know that she has a medical problem and has nothing to do with what others believe her to be. I feel so sorry for her that she cannot even afford to get herself treated.”
The local government has intervened, offering the woman a home and pension while trying to educate her fellow villagers that she is not a witch.
Polydactylism occurs in roughly one in 500 births and generally is corrected by surgery.
