Madurai Widow Forced to Peddle Newborn Girl, for Rs 100
Dhanyamasta/Newindpress
Madurai, Jan 5: A curious crowd had gathered outside the maternity ward of the Government Rajaji Hospital in Madurai on Friday morning. Most of them were amused at a poor woman’s plight. Some offered unsolicited advice. The woman, Panju, was inconsolable.
She had given birth to a baby girl just hours back and was crying out for people to take the baby away. “Take my baby and give me hundred rupees. How will I feed her now and when she grows up,” she pleaded with the crowd. “Find work as a domestic help,” a heartless fellow from the crowd advised.
Hearing the commotion, a group of women formed a protective ring around Panju. One of the ladies told Express that Panju had tried to leave her baby in the cradle that the government has kept in hospitals for people like her, but the watchman shooed her away. Panju hails from Melur and her husband passed away two months back. Life has been really hard for her since. Her husband died of AIDS and she is also HIV positive. She had to find work as a construction worker in the seventh month of her pregnancy.
And now, she cannot afford to bring up the baby on her own. After hearing more people in the crowd mock Panju, the hospital guard decided to act. Panju was led away by the women who gathered in her support.
By afternoon, she was back at the hospital gates, peddling the newborn. This time the guards called in the police and Panju was taken to a station.
There she told the policemen her story and also her HIV status. The police promptly got her readmitted to the maternity ward. Doctors at the hospital confirmed that Panju was HIV-positive but said the baby’s status would be known only after she is six weeks old.
When asked why did the watchman not let Panju leave her baby in the cradle instead of peddling her for Rs 100, Dr S M Sivakumar, deputy superintendent of the hospital said: “This case has not come to our notice yet. But if it did happen, then the watchman would not have allowed the baby to be put there because the mother was present.”