Abandoned babies in India

Abandonment…how would it feel to be abandoned by one’s own parents? The people who gave birth to one, how can anyone abandon their own flesh and blood? Alone and helpless.

Child abandonment occurs in every community, on every social level, any place.

In India, there is no law as such with punitive provisions for abandonment. Even if looked at internationally, probably Japan is the only place, where there is a law.

Abandoned babies are usually in poor health and are taken by the police to MSV, which then puts them in a government hospital till they are fit again. Then they are registered and handed over to an NGO, where they are looked after for three months - the waiting period - and if no one claims them, they either become wards of the state or the NGO or are put up for adoption.

Hospital authorities say that in many cases young mothers abandon their babies mostly because they are born out of wedlock, to an underage girl, or the baby is a girl. Unlike private hospitals which are very rigid when it comes to admission procedures for deliveries, government hospitals usually require basic information, and they too have their hands full with several deliveries a day.