Bongaigaon District, Assam:
A one-week-old baby girl, sold by desperate parents in Assam's Bongaigaon district allegedly because they could not settle hospital bills, has been rescued by the district administration and is back with her parents.
20-year-old Sabita Narzary had delivered a baby girl last week at a private hospital in the district. Her husband Philip is a daily wage earner. They live in the state's Chirang district and had gone to the adjoining Bongaigaon government hospital for the delivery. The couple say they were referred to the private hospital by government doctors who told them the delivery would require a cesarean operation and that the local government hospital could not manage it in the given infrastructure.
After the delivery, the private hospital handed Rs 29,000 bill to the couple, which they could not afford. A student organization in the area, the All Bodo Students Association has alleged a nurse, yet to be properly identified, at the hospital then convinced the couple to sell their child to another childless couple who were present at the hospital. The students' body alleges the couple was told they would not be allowed to leave the hospital otherwise and so they agreed.
Bongaigaon Deputy Commissioner Biswajit Pegu refused to share too many details of the incident, or the rescue. "We have handed the baby over to the parents. So far, from our questioning of the couple, we have not managed to find any evidence of the couple being forced by any nurse at the private hospital to sell their child," is all he was willing to say.
The couple has so far not given out specific details about the incident and is also traumatised.
The local unit of the All Bodo Students Union (ABSU) has filed a First Information Report or FIR against the private hospital management. The police says they are investigating the case.
The Central Government's Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakram (JSSK) scheme entitles a pregnant woman to free and cashless delivery, free caesarean section, free drugs and dietary supplements and free pathological tests at any health institution for up to three days for normal delivery and seven for caesarean section.
There are no answers yet from the government on why the government doctors the couple went to, forced them to seek private help instead.