Family ‘sells’ son to clear debt
BAREILLY: A 25-year-old bed ridden man allegedly sold off his 15-day old son for Rs 42,000 to clear his debts. The man Harswaroop Maurya, a resident of Hafiz Ganj in Nawabganj block here, was left paralysed below the waist following an accident in September this year.
“I can’t earn a single paisa and have four mouths too feed. We had no option but to give away the child,” Harswaroop told HT on Monday. He was shifted to the district hospital on Monday morning after the district administration learnt about the incident.
For three months after his injury, the family ran from piller to post for his treatment but in vain. The family was advised to take him to Lucknow or Delhi for advanced treatment but there was no money for the journey.
“My wife had to sell her jewellery to buy medicines. We took some money from our relatives. All of it was spent on my treatment. We decided to give away the child when we had nothing else left,” Maurya said.
But the decision was much harder for Murya’s wife Sanju, 24. Fourteen days after she delivered a child at home , she had to hand him over to a stranger. “We named him Ankit”, Sanju said, “He was an angel . We were not destined to be with him.” The child was Sanju’s third child. “I would have lost my other two sons to hunger had I not separated Ankit from us,” she said .
Meanwhile, the district administration has claimed that the child was given away by the family as per adoption laws and no money was exchanged. However, the administration is making arrangements for financial aid to the family.
“I have initiated a procedure to enrol the family in public distribution scheme for subsidised food grains. The chief medical officer of the district has also been requested to make a health and disability certificate of Maurya,” said Kunwar Pankaj, sub divisional magistrate of Nawabganj block.
“On the direction of the district magistrate, we are also writing g a letter to the chief minister of the state requesting financial support for the family,” he said.
THE FAMILY WAS ADVISED TO TAKE HIM TO LUCKNOW OR DELHI FOR ADVANCED TREATMENT BUT THERE WAS NO MONEY FOR THE JOURNEY