Made a mistake: Mother of abandoned baby

Confined to her one-room accommodation in Ram Darbar, Kiran is reluctant to face questions from her neighbours. “Ye pata nahi kaise hua, bas galti ho gayi (I do not know how this happened, it was a mistake),” said Kiran when asked why she abandoned her daughter. “Abhi to woh das din ki ho gayi hai.(She is now 10 days old),” she added.

The couple, who hail from a remote village in Arrah, Bihar, shifted to Chandigarh a year ago and have been staying in a rented room of a small building in Ram Darbar. Rakesh works as a daily wager in a factory and earns around Rs 5,000 a month.

Police said the couple abandoned the baby because they could not raise another daughter on their meagre income. They were booked under Section 317 of the IPC, which carries a maximum punishment of seven years, or a fine, or both.

As women from the neighbourhood swarm the house, admonishing her for callousness, Kiran stands silent while her first daughter, Neha, who plays near her. According to neighbours, the couple take good care of the two and a half year old child.

“On Saturday, when we came to the house and inquired about the child, they told us that she went missing from the hospital when they went for a check-up. We insisted that they lodge a police complaint so that the child could be traced. But they were hesitant,” said Rakesh’s brother Umesh.

According to neighbours, the couple identified the child when they saw pictures in the next day’s newspapers and began to cry. However, they refused to identify the child when police took them to the General Hospital in Sector 6 (Panchkula).

“Wo chhoti si thi, chhote se haath. Pata nai chala… (She was so small, tiny hands,  I could not make out)”, said Kiran with her eyes lowered.
Two more families stay in the same building, and none of them have a child.

“If they did not want her, they could have given her to us,” said Ravinder, who lives on the ground floor with his wife.

With Rakesh at work, Kiran is hesitant with her replies. Asked if they would go to take their daughter back from Shishu Greh in Sector 15, the mother nodded. “Yes, we will take her,” she said.

Chairperson of the Child Welfare Committee, Devender Kumar, said they had called the couple for counselling on February 2.

“We need to know if they really want their child back and if they are ready to take good care of her. Otherwise, a formal procedure will be

initiated for relinquishment of the child to legally free her for adoption, which will take at least two months,” he said.