'Unwanted infants can be surrendered legally'

NAGPUR: The body of a newly-born boy was found between the tracks on platform no. 3 and 4 at Nagpur railway station on October 4. Nagpur city
often witnesses such incidents, where unwed mothers or parents abandon a newborn infant on the road, dustbin or in secluded places.

To curb such incidents, the Free Legal Aid Committee has now started a campaign to make people aware that they can surrender unwanted children legally, instead of condemning them to death. Anyone can surrender a child legally at orphanages in the city, disclosed Ranjana Pardhi, chairperson of the Child Welfare Committee and member of Free Legal Aid Service Sub-Committee at Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court.

The above campaign is supported by the High Court Legal Services Sub-Committee of Nagpur bench, which is celebrating Monday as Legal Aid Services Day. The main aim of the committee is to provide free legal aid services to poor people, women and children, and to help persons who are victims of social atrocities and natural calamities.

Speaking to TOI, Pardhi expressed the concern that in the recent past the city had reported many incidents of unidentified parents abandoning infants in isolated places. She pointed out that if any parent is unable to take care of a child due to any crisis in the family, then they can come to the Child Welfare Committee and admit their babies.

Pardhi said that one can surrender an infant or a new born baby before the Child Welfare Committee at all district places. At Nagpur, one can surrender them at the Government Observation and Children's Home, Patankar Chowk, near Lalgodam, Kamptee Road. She said that the identity of such parents is kept secret by the committee. On the other hand, it is a crime to abandon a child, she warned.

Surrendering a child or newborn baby lawfully ensures that childless couples can adopt them by legal procedures, she explained.

The chairperson, however, clarified that nursing homes cannot perform the adoption procedures. Among the orphanages in the city where one can surrender children are Vardaan at Kasturba Bhavan, Bajaj Nagar; Shraddhanand Anathalay; Aaashirwad; Balashhrya, Opposite Jaswant Talkies, Kamptee Road; Vivekanad Balsadan (Kamptee) and New Energy Sanstha.
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