Khilkhilat van pilot turns boatman to ferry newborn, mom to island home

Vadodara: Gujarat has deployed special vans — ‘Khilkhilat vans — to take newly born babies and their mothers home.
In a rare a heart-warming gesture one such van driver in Mahisagar district’s Kadana taluka, however, didn’t let the ‘Khilkhilat’ of a newborn fade just because his home was located on an island — he turned into a boatman to ferry both mother and infant safely home across the river.
The van’s pilot Balvant Vagadiya had received a call on Saturday afternoon that he had to drop off a woman who had delivered a newborn at Santrampur state hospital. “The patient informed me that her home was located on Rathda bet, a remote island that is one of the last village on Mahisagar district neighbouring Rajasthan,” said Vagadiya.
When Vagadiya reached the bank of Kadana river and called up the woman’s relatives, he was told to drop them at the riverbank. “Her relatives told me that they would reach there in an hour to collect the mother and the newborn waiting on this side of the river,” he said.
In absence of any male member from the family, Vagadiya informed his supervisor about the situation.
“I was concerned about leaving them on the riverbank alone. My supervisor inquired if I knew how to row a boat, and as I did, I volunteered to drop them off on the island,” said the yeoman who said h learnt boating while travelling to and from his job.
Vagadiya, who had to row for nearly one km stretch in the boat to reach Radha bet, added that the remote island has nearly 300 households.