Abandoned newborn of ‘uncertain sex’ has officials in a fix

JAIPUR: A newborn child of “uncertain gender” abandoned at a cradle for unwanted infants at Bikaner’s Satellite District Hospital last Wednesday has put the officials in a quandary. It is for the first time that a child carrying traits of both the sexes has been abandoned at a cradle put up the state government. The government has no specified rules for adoption of such children.

The cradle is one of the 65 installed across the state — at district hospitals, satellite hospitals and medical colleges – under chief minister’s Ashray Palna Sthal Yojna to save newborns abandoned by their parents.

“The child has all the signs of being a female but the male organ is also a little developed, so I have written the gender as female(?). The rules specify that if a child is unhealthy or sick, the hospital should start the treatment. If the child is healthy, he or she is handed over to the child welfare committee (CWC). The child was healthy so I have handed it over to the CWC,” said Dr B L Hatila, in-charge, Bikaner Satellite District Hospital.

Once the CWC is handed over a child, it puts up an advertisement in the newspapers looking for claimants. If no claims are made, the Bal Kalyan Samiti declares the child legally free and puts him or her up for adop- tion through the various agencies in the state.

“When we enter the details of the child in the form provided online by the adoption agencies, we get only two gender options – male and female. Now, we need to get the sex of the child confirmed before we can proceed further,” said Yogendra Kumar Sharma, president of the Bal Kalyan Samiti, Bikaner.

There was some confusion among the committee members too at the time of the admission of the child, he added.

Usually, the parents, fearing social ignominy, hand over the newborns carrying traits of both the sexes to members of the transgender community. In this case, however, the child is in the government custody and the adoption has to be as per the rules, officials said.

As per the rules, a transgender person cannot adopt a child, they added.

The BKS president said that he would write to the Prince Bijaysingh Memorial Mahila Hospital in the district to set up a medical board to examine and declare the sex of the child. In case the child is a transgender, the committee will seek the opinion of the state government and officials at the national level for further action.

Meanwhile, doctors at New Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) said the condition, though rare, could be a result of multiple causes.

“One of the reasons could be congenital adrenal hyperplasia, which is a treatable condition both with medicines and surgery,” said Dr VK Paul, head of paediatrics department.

“At the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, we specialise in treating such cases,” he added.

Child has all the signs of being a female but male organ is also developed, so I wrote gender as female(?). When we enter the details of the child in the form by the adoption agencies, we get only two options – male and female.