Call her Janet, the tag on her wrist said

What is in a name? Nothing, or maybe, everything.

For Janet, her name may well mean everything thing in life. All of five days, when on Sunday night she was found in the Amma Thottil of the Kerala State Child Welfare Council, here, the infant’s umbilical link with her past was a tag on her wrist bearing a plea that her name be retained.

And so Janet she will be; the 75th girl and the 129th child to be left on the cradle. Council Administrative Officer B. Balamohan said here that the infant was healthy and was being cared for by the nurses and ‘ayahs’ at the council’s adoption centre.

“We ask that if there are any claimants for Janet, they come forward immediately. After a while we would initiate steps to include Janet in the adoption process,” he said. This is the second youngest child to be found on the Ammma Thottil; a month ago a four-day-old girl was found.

“However, this is for the first time that a child was left on the cradle with a request that we retain her name,” he added.

A custom

It is the Council’s custom to give names to children who are found in the Amma Thottil. Hearing the Amma Thottil’s alarm sound at about 10 p.m. on Monday it was nurse B.S. Deepa and ‘ayah’ M. Anitha Kumari who rushed to the facility and found the infant.