Baripada: The share of births to unwed mothers has been rising in Mayurbhanj district as a newborn was rescued in critical condition from an abandoned place in Khurantia village under Morada police limits Monday.
The matter came to fore after a youth, who had gone to the embankment to relieve himself heard the cry of a newborn girl and he informed the villagers. The villagers rescued the girl and informed the district child protection unit and police. The newborn, when rescued was found completely drenched in rain in the night, with worms crawling over her body.
The newborn was admitted to the special newborn care unit at Pandit Raghunath Murmu Medical College and Hospital, district child protection officer Mamatamayee Biswal said.
Meanwhile, police have started a probe to trace out the mother of the newborn and the person who had dumped the girl on the embankment, Morada police IIC Swarnalata Minz said. The newborn will be produced before the district child welfare committee after recovery. The panel will then take a decision on her rehabilitation, Biswal said.
Some locals opined that the newborn might have been abandoned because of her being a girl child.
With this incident, 12 newborns have been rescued during the last three years in this district after they were abandoned by their unwed mothers for the fear of stigma attached to them.
Sources said the district child protection unit has rescued more than 12 newborns in abandoned conditions. It also sent 14 children, who were handed over by their parents to the unit, to the special child adoption centre for their upbringing and rehabilitation.
Observers expressed concern over the situation and termed abandoning newborns in unsafe conditions as a sick mentality.
Recently, two women while collecting firewood from Kanchan Nagar jungle near Krushnachandrapur village under Betanoti police limits rescued a newborn girl lying abandoned under a bush and handed the girl to the district child protection unit.
The newborn, rescued in a critical condition was admitted to the hospital but succumbed while undergoing treatment. PNN