Wrapped in a shawl turned grey from grime, the three-month-old baby girl was brought to meet this correspondent near the Taimur Nagar police post. “How do you like her,” the girl’s maternal aunt, Rahima, asked. “I know she is too skinny, so she looks horrible. But one month of proper food, and she will turn healthy. Look, her features are so sharp.”
Rahima had made contact hoping to sell the baby, one of the twins born to a younger sister who suffers from a psychiatric condition. The girl’s twin, she says, has already been sold for Rs. 50,000 to a childless Muslim couple in Dwarka early this month. Rahima says she “gave the money to the mother for her medication.”
“You tell me,” Rahima asks,“what should I have done with this baby?” “Her mother is ill, and sometimes runs down the road stripping off her clothes. She already has two children aged 10 and eight who live in Kolkata with our old parents. Her husband, an unemployed alcoholic, abandoned her soon after hearing that her wife had given birth to twin baby girls.”
Rahima says the twins were born “utterly malnourished, with big eyes and hanging skin.” “I picked them and asked their mother what she wanted to do with them. She said, ‘sell them, throw them, I don’t care.’”
She doesn’t act as if she has something to hide: the child is brought in broad daylight, with a group of slum residents in attendance. There is even an advocate, she says, who can deal with legal issues.
Rahima lives in one of the slum neighbourhoods of Taimur Nagar, located on a massive garbage dump, home in the main to domestic servants who make a living in nearby Zakir Nagar, Batla House and Jamia Nagar.
“Every second month,” Rahima says, “I find one or the other new born child thrown on the rubbish heap or locked inside jhuggi houses without food and water. I can’t see them abandoned and crying. So, I pick them up, buy milk for them, feed them and after they turn a little healthy, give them to known and prosperous Muslim families. I even call the police from the nearby station, go to Patiala Court and get drawn up kagaz pattar [agreement papers between child’s parents and the new family]”.
On Monday afternoon, Dukhi [the sad one], as the little girl had been named, was given away to a childless Muslim couple who live in the same vicinity. Rahima says the baby’s new mother had married five years ago and was facing hard time from her relatives for being “infertile.”
“I gave away the baby and didn’t take even a single penny from her new parents for they are as poor as I am. I spent a month with her. I am feeling very miserable.”
She has a new prospect in hand already. “There is another child one can buy, but five months from now. Her mother, who lives in the same slum, is having a tough time as her husband has abandoned her. She has asked me to find new parents for her.”
Keywords: Sale of children, Delhi Taimur Nagar slum
Now it is a question, isn't it better to give a child to a family that
want to accept it than to throw it away in the garbage? Selling a
child is a punishable offence according to the Indian Penal Code. And
it is right, since there are people who would utilize the law if it
was sanctioned to Chanel babies out. Babies will be produces like
other manufacturing goods and people will fix up rates for males and
females and the cycle would go on. But there should be some exceptions
as one is mentioned here. I thing the main cause behind all these
problem regarding female babies is the dowry. Cant we find a solution
by ourselves about it? How much can the government do, if the people
are nor aware themselves?
Such a heart wrenching story.
How can we help Rahima and her family.
is there awy to contact you-Rana Siddiqui Zaman.?
Thanks
This is also one face of Shining India which has perhaps the largest unauthorised slum in the world.The govt.is busy first in doing scams and later on in covering them.As made known these days the opposition is not only dormant but even corrupt too, then who takes care of these events which are shameful for the 65 year old democracy and even needs mercy.Now God can only save this country or the inner spirit and motive of the people awakes like of Rahima.May God bless the kids in the right hands which Rahima is delivering.
Some way to go for India Shining.
thank you for this A sad, yet uplifting story, on this Diwali.
May more of us find happiness and salvation in helping the most helpless
in our society - no greater religion that that.
It is so sad to read that still people are clutched in thoughts of girl
being a sign of bad luck and burden.Govt and NGOs should come forward
and take steps for these angels who are misinterpreted as curse for
their parents.
I am in two minds about this story. On one hand, what Rahima is doing
is commendable, but on the other hand it is utterly, morally unethical
to sell human children. And the scope of misuse and exploitation of
children through these means is immense.
There needs to be a solution for unwanted children - a situation that
will forever present itself in communities around the world, and in
India. If what Rahima is doing can be done in a more organized manner
through orphanages, this will be more of a social service.
It is sad sad sad that our country is so backward despite all that we have achieved. This happening in the nation's capital ! Forget that this is the kind of news foreign media routinely show about India. A few days later, it would soon be forgotten in our own country.
I would be grateful if Hindu could let me know how to find Ms.Rahima.
One day, I would like to adopt two or three babies.
When I visit India next time I want to meet Rahima and will be to help her financially. How can I contact her? jitendra
Excellent social worker and great humanitarian. She is contributing to
the society in salvaging humans thrown into the garbage and resurrects
them. She is must be assisted financially by philanthropists.
Simultaneously the Govt must promote family planning in full vigor and
educate in simplest terms the married couples that the male plays the
role in determining the sex of child.
it's horrible !
Some NGO should go to these areas and spread awareness.
where are the government's scheme for these children and mothers, politicians are selling country people are selling children. even animal and creatures feed their children upto some young age. humans are really worse than animal.
Unfortunate that our country looms in depths of ignorance, lack of awareness, and a
whole host of related issues...that if we start counting, never end... Deeply pray for
these little souls left in the darkness of a world that may or may not have a place for
them...I wish for the day when these to be born children become the beacons of
hope for mothers rather than a burden to throw away...And that every child is lookd
forward to, not left behind!...Thank You Rana Siddiqui for reporting this deeply
painful article yet one that should spur change in our resistant political, socio-
economic system...Maybe it's not just a point the finger and blame game, it's also
got to do with our own attitudes and what initiative we take as a collective to root
out these grass root problems...If 10% of India is education, and one educated
person can touch many lives, I wonder why it never happens...I wonder what the
underlying fears are to shirk away from these realities and let it rot to doom...
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