Couple give up newborn girl, their eighth, for adoption

Father pleaded he was unable to bring her up and refused to take her home

Apoor couple in Bihar refused to bring their newborn baby home and instead handed it over to an orphanage soon after birth as they wanted a baby boy. She was the eighth daughter in the family in quick succession.

The shocking incident took place in Madhepura district in the weekend, amply indicating the fate of the much- trumpeted “save girl campaign” in the state.

50- year- old Vibha Devi, wife of a rickshaw puller Harilal Ram, 55, was admitted to a local government hospital on Thursday when her labour pain started. The couple already had seven daughters and was ecstatically expecting a boy this time.

However, once she was informed she had delivered a baby girl, she began crying inconsolably. As the news reached her husband, he just refused to bring his baby girl home and continued making fervent appeals to the hospital authorities to hand over the newborn baby to any orphanage until his request was considered.

“Sir, we are very poor and already have seven daughters. Somehow we have married off four daughters and the rest three are yet to be married. We are unable to bring her up. Please hand her over to any orphanage,” Ram told hospital manager Piyush Vardhan with folded hands.

Eventually the hospital authorities called up an orphanage official who rushed to the spot and adopted the newborn.

Contrasting story

This was in sharp contrast to the story of another rickshaw- puller Bablu Jatav from Rajasthan who went all out to save his five- day- old baby girl Damini after his wife died soon after delivering the baby. Help poured in from various quarters after the heart- wrenching image of the man peddling a rickshaw with right hand and taking care of the baby hanging in a sling from his neck had gone viral.

The gender discrimination is rampant in Bihar. According to a report, the sex ratio in at least nine districts out of state’s total 38 is less than 900 against state’s average at 916 per 1,000 male population. The districts are Patna, the capital of Bihar, Sheohar, Sitamarhi, Muzaffarpur, Vaishali, Begusarai, Khagaria, Bhagalpur and Munger.