Abandoned infants a cause for worry

Nagpur: The city police rescuing two abandoned infants — one from an autorickshaw near Kidwai School in Jaffar Nagar and another from a heap of garbage in Sangharsh Nagar on Ring Road — highlight that the problem of unwed mothers still plagues the society though the numbers show a downward trend.
While the number of such rescued infants this year till February 13 is two, city police had rescued eight such infants in 2017, revealed a senior police official from crime branch.

In most incidents, the abandoned infants had been girls. Abandoned babies are a common feature in government hospitals, where a large number of deliveries take place. Such “unwanted” babies are also dumped in public places or sometimes on the heaps of garbage.

Sources from government hospitals revealed that in many cases, young unwed mothers abandon their babies fearing social stigma or sometimes only because it’s a baby girl.

“Unlike private hospitals, which are very strict when it comes to admission procedures for deliveries, government hospitals usually require only basic information about the patient. We also have our hands full with several deliveries a day,” said a doctor from a government hospital in central Nagpur.

The number of teenagers and young unmarried women going in for abortions too has risen sharply in the city, sparking concern among gynecologists over unsafe and unprotected sex. Contrary to this, Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) has said in a reply to an RTI query that abortion numbers are falling.

In the last 69 months, 1,650 unwed women had undergone abortions, says Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC). The figures were released by the civic body while replying to a query under the Right to Information Act by activist Abhay Kolarkar. Between 2012-13 and till December 2017, NMC-run maternity hospitals have registered 1,968 applications for abortion.

Four unwed women also lost their life during abortion since 2012-13, the RTI reply stated.

City gynecologists, however, said that the numbers provided by the NMC are very less. Dr Uma Gathibandhe, who runs a clinic, blamed the rise in such cases due to unsafe sex. According to her, social media is mainly responsible for rise in physical relationships. “Of the cases I dealt about pregnancy, 90% cases were of teenage girls getting pregnant,” she pointed out.