Abandoned at birth in Kashmir

RESCUE In absence of staterun homes, hospitals take the responsibility of caring for abandoned newborns

Residents of a Nowhatta street in Srinagar’s old quarters woke up to a disturbing sight on March 2 — the naked body of an abandoned newborn boy, ghostly pale from the overnight rain bearing down on him.

In a society that celebrates births with rites of welcome and blessings, the lifeless infant in the middle of the road pricked the conscience of Kashmiris.

Somebody took pictures of the child and those were shared quickly and widely, with comments expressing shock, sorrow and anger and calling for punishment to the parents, however desperate they may be to desert the baby.

“Lost for words and shocked! ...Where are we heading as humans and as a society? How will our prayers bear fruit when such become our deeds! Where have we buried our conscience?” Kashmir’s chief cleric and separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq tweeted.

This is not a knee-jerk reaction to a stray case, but a reflection of people’s anger and pain over at least seven reported instances of newborns being dumped at hospitals, shrines and on roads in Kashmir Valley since January this year.

According to local media, two of these infants were dead.

These abandonments are not restricted to urban areas with a large population. In February, a newborn was dumped in a corner of a remote village in Pulwama.

Authorities at Srinagar’s GB Pant hospital — the lone paediatric care institution in Kashmir — said the government-funded facility has taken care of at least 16 abandoned babies since 2014.

“These were either left in the hospital’s wards or staircases and, in some cases, outside shrines, following which police brought them here,” said Dr Kanwarjit Singh, the hospital’s medical superintendent.

An imam, Molvi Adnan, who runs an NGO, adopted three of these babies who faced trouble during adoption because of

SRINAGAR: These [babies] were either left in the [GB Pant] hospital’s wards or staircases and, in some cases, outside shrines, following which police brought them here When a girl is born, a father thinks about her marriage from day one. We have become extravagant in our weddings and social evils are percolating

KHURSHID UL ISLAM, sociologist