Poverty-stricken, jobless Hyd couple tries to sell infant son for ₹22,000

HYDERABAD: Poverty and lack of work during the lockdown drove a migrant couple in Hyderabad to try and sell their two-month old son for ₹22,000 through a mediator on Sunday.

Jeedimetla police arrested the couple, Madan Kumar Singh, 32, and Saritha, 30, of Uttar Pradesh, who came to Hyderabad a few years ago to work as construction labourers. Another woman, identified as Seshu, who was brokering the deal, was also taken into custody. The child was the couple’s second son; the first is seven years old.

“We have rescued the child and shifted him to Sishu Vihar being run by the women and child welfare department authorities,” PV Padmaja Reddy, deputy commissioner of police of Balanagar, said . She said enquiries revealed that the couple was in acute poverty. “We are investigating as to whether there were any other reasons for the sale of the child,” the DCP said.

Jeedimetla police said the couple had apparently thought they would not be able to raise the second child. The child’s mother told the police that her husband was also used to consuming alcohol and was pestering her for money to buy liquor.

“The couple managed to find a broker Seshu, known to the couple, who reportedly found a childless couple who agreed to buy the child for Rs 22,000. On receiving a tipoff, we caught Seshu, who was taking the child for a medical examination,” a police officer said.

Andhra Pradesh Balala Hakkula Sangham (child rights association) president P Achyuta Rao said it was the responsibility of the state government to come to the rescue of daily-wage workers who were in extreme poverty because of the lockdown. “The department of women and child welfare should launch an awareness campaign about the cradle scheme among the poor people who were resorting to selling of new-born babies,” he said.