The Hindu : Waiting patiently for new homes

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Mar 22, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Kerala-Thiruvananthapuram

Waiting patiently for new homes

By C. Maya

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM MARCH 21. Kannan and Babu were full of excited chatter when they came back from the creche. No, their mothers were not waiting for them, but the three-and-half-year olds did not put up any fuss. They waited patiently to be changed and fed by the ayahs - after all, in a house full of screaming infants, there is no room for pampering and the older ones have to wait their turn.

At an age when they should be revelling in the attention and love of parents and grandparents or happily playing in the park or beach, their world is mostly confined to the four walls of the nursery at the State Council for Child Welfare here.

These two are the eldest of the young ones at the adoption centre of the Council, waiting patiently for the day when they would have new homes and parents to pamper them.

At present there are 23 young children at the Council, most of whom are infants. Eight of them were found in the `Amma' cradle while the rest were rescued from various places where they were abandoned.

Kannan was born to a mentally unsound woman at Abhaya village at Malayinkeezhu in the outskirts of the city. His father had deserted his mother and as the relatives were not willing to take care of him, he was brought to the Council when he was nearly two years old. The child's adoption has not been possible because his mother, who is still mentally ill, has to give her consent for it as per the law.

Many babies have been rescued from the railway station. Sheetal, who has just turned one year old, was found abandoned on one of the concrete benches in the Thiruvalla Railway Station. She was rescued by the police who handed her over to the Pushpagiri Hospital at Thiruvalla, from where she was brought to the Council. Nithin, who also turns one next month, was also found abandoned in the same railway station.

Nine-month-old Akash and Ambili, seven months old, were both found abandoned in hospitals. Ambili has a congenital orthopaedic problem, for which she is undergoing treatment. Rhea, a six-month-old baby, was handed over to the Council by the SAT Hospital authorities. She had been admitted to the hospital by someone who later absconded, leaving her behind.

There are any number of people waiting to take away healthy babies who are abandoned by mothers at the hospital soon after birth. The unhealthy ones or those with physical deformities are left for the authorities to take care of, social workers point out.

The Council lost one of its infants, Srinath, barely 45 days old, last week.

The baby, born to an Arab and abandoned in one of the city hospitals, had been diagnosed as having congenital heart problems which required heart surgery. The authorities had been waiting for his health to improve when he died at the hospital.

As if abandoning them is not torture enough, people can be quite inhuman in the manner in which they `dispose' of unwanted children, Council authorities point out.

Radhika, now seven months old, had been bundled up and thrown out of a moving car, in front of the Sacred Heart Convent, Anchuthengu. The baby had concussion on her head resulting from the fall and was admitted to the hospital by the nuns in the convent.

Daya, now ten-months-old, still bears marks of attempted strangulation on her neck. She had been left to die in a pit in a rubber estate in the suburbs. One of her eyes had been permanently damaged when she was attacked by ants where she lay. She was barely alive when found by a local couple who took her to the SAT Hospital. The baby had to be nursed back to health.

Not many would have forgotten Chinnu, the three-year-old who had been found in the electronic cradle and who had later been claimed by a vagrant woman as her own child. One would hardly recognise Chinnu now, who looks cherubic in her smart frock and new haircut.

Having put her life on the streets behind her, she is now attending the kindergarten run by the Council and would be soon free for adoption.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Southern States

Stories in this Section

Exam fee hike proposed in Kerala varsity budget

AKS ends agitation before Secretariat

Low-floor bus to have trial run on Monday

Travel agents assn. seeks extra flights to Kuwait

Waiting patiently for new homes