A 10-year-boy, Avinash, and a 12-year-old-girl, Roshni Valmiki, were beaten to death, on Sep. 25, for pooping in public within the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, Aljazeera reported.

The two children were from the Dalit community -- a caste formerly known as the “untouchables”, which sits at the bottom of India’s caste hierarchy.

Incident happened just outside their family's house

Indian media NDTV and The Hindu reported that the incident happened just outside the home of the children's family, at 6am in the morning, in the district of Shivpuri.

Both children had left the house to visit their grandparents, when they defecated in the open.

The father of the boy, Manoj Valmiki, pointed out that the children had to do so as the family did not have a toilet at home.

Two men then attacked the children as they relieving themselves, beating them to death with sticks.

Children died on the spot

Manoj recounted, as per Aljazeera:

"I heard them crying for help. I went out to see what had happened and to my utter shock, I saw two men hitting them with sticks at a distance of about 60 to 70 feet (18 to 20 metres) from our house."

He added, "Before I could reach them, they were dead. I couldn't save them."

The two men then tried to flee the scene, but were caught by villagers who handed them to the police afterwards.

They have been identified as brothers, Hakam Singh Yadav and Rameshwar Yadav.

Rajesh Chandel, the superintendent of police in Shivpuri, added that the accused were mentally sound and had admitted to the crime during interrogation, Reuters reported.

Meanwhile, the bodies of the children have been sent to the hospital for a post-mortem.

Given two cheques of S$7,816 as compensation for each child

The district's magistrate visited the family on Sep. 26 and gave them two cheques of 400,000 rupees (S$7,816) each as compensation, Aljazeera further reported.

The magistrate also promised Manoj that the brothers will be given "strict" punishment.

"I want both of them hanged to death so that an example is set and no one kills anyone's child like this in future," added Manoj.

Murder followed a quarrel where the accused hurled "casteist slurs"

Manoj further alleged that the murder was preceded by an earlier quarrel with the accused, in which they hurled "casteist slurs" at the family.

He added, "There is a lot of untouchability issues in our village. Our children cannot play with their children."

India to be "open defecation free" by Oct. 2

Reuters further noted that India's Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, had promised in 2014 to make India "open defecation free" (ODF) by Oct. 2, 2019.

That promise is part of Modi's Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, or Clean India mission.

On Sep. 25, the same day as the incident, Modi also received the Global Goalkeeper Award from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for his campaign, India Today reported.

Shivpuri's top civil servant, Anugraha P, said that the village in which the incident occurred was declared "open defecation free" in 2018, although Manoj's home did not have a toilet.

Top photo by SANJAY KANOJIA/AFP/Getty Images