Bengal: As neighbours bar mother, newborn from entering home, admin steps in to offer shelter

On Tuesday, Chandrakona I Block BDO Abhishek Mishra shifted the mother and baby to a shelter home. “We are making all arrangements to keep both of them healthy and safe,” he said.

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Civic body workers on duty in Kolkata. (Express photo/Partha Paul)

Amid rising fear and distrust among people amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the West Midnapore administration on Wednesday came to the rescue of a woman and her newborn, after they were barred from entering the house of their relatives.

The tribal woman, a resident of Ranibandh in Bankura district, had come to West Midnapore district’s Chandrakona in search of job with her husband before the nationwide lockdown was announced. Later, when she failed to return home, the pregnant woman started staying at her relative’s house at Bhabhanipur village in Chandrakona.

On April 24, she gave birth to a baby boy, following which her husband went back to their Bankura house to get documents and ID cards. Meanwhile, when the woman was released from the hospital on Sunday, the residents of Bhabhanipur village refused to let the woman and her newborn enter her relative’s house.

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“As she was in a hospital to deliver the baby, there was a sense of panic among Bhabanipur villagers that she might be carrying the virus. So, they refused to let her in,” said a senior police officer of Chandrakona police station.

However, members of a local club gave the woman and the baby a temporary shelter on the club premises.

On Tuesday, Chandrakona I Block BDO Abhishek Mishra shifted the mother and baby to a shelter home. “We are making all arrangements to keep both of them healthy and safe,” he said.

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