Case Studies

CS1- Miracle Baby: Day-old girl returns from clutches of death

INDIA, Patiala, 28 September 2006 – Pediatric ward of Government Rajindra Hospital is hosting a special child these days. She has no name, but if she were to have one, “Adbhut” (marvelous) would be perfect. She has just survived a fatal assault that no other child, who’s been in the world just a day, could have. Her doctors are surprised, so is the man who rescued her.

The Night of September 12 It was the night of September 12 and Mr Devinder Kumar, a medical shop owner, was resting in his Phulkian Road residence. He had returned home earlier than usual that day. Had he not, a newborn girl would have choked to death in his backyard. “I seldom return early from work. Now I know who altered my schedules. God had an interest in saving the child. I just facilitated the divine plan,” says Mr Kumar.

As he once tries to recount the horrors of that night: “I was taking a walk in the verandah when I heard a baby whimpering. It was a desperate cry for help. I followed the whimpers, and found myself in an abandoned alleyway that separated our colony from the one behind.

`It was a Godforsaken place, full of wild, thorny growth. You could not have walked an inch into the road without getting hurt. I traced the cries to a mound of sand. The child was lying buried under it. I removed the sand and pulled her out.”

Battered and left to die

Touch of life: Senior pediatrician at Government Rajindra Hospital, Patiala Dr Harshinder Kaur monitors the condition of day-old girl child

who was recovered from a sand mound in a battered state two weeks ago

The child had serious injuries. She was naked; wrapped around only in a layer of sand. Her umbilicus had been severely infected, vulnerable as it was after her birth that very morning. Sand particles had entered her body from ears, eyes, mouth and umbilicus.

The man at rescue was shocked at her condition. Almost certain that she will collapse, he prayed. He had no idea of the miracle in waiting.

By the time, the neighbours had gathered on the spot. The police had also arrived after intimation. On duty that night was Assistant Sub Inspector Mr Tejinder Singh, who has witnessed many such cases in Punjab. The state has a notoriously low sex ratio. One of its districts, Fatehgarh Sahib, has just 754 females against 1000 males. Patiala is no better. Over a small period, it has witnessed several cases of attempted killings of newborn girls.

Doctors save the baby girl

Out of 10 children who visit the pediatric OPD of Government Rajindra Hospital on any given day, only two are girls – a trend indicative of a declining child sex ratio. So when the police rushed a girl child to the pediatric emergency that night, doctors left nothing to chance.

They put the child on a drip as she had lost considerable glucose (a condition called hypoglycemia). Then they restored her body temperature that had dipped to potentially fatal levels.

“She was severely hypothermic (had a low body temperature). She had remained under the sand mound for far too long and had lost vital energy. There were marks of battering all over her body. She had been beaten up mercilessly; some of her bones lay exposed. It was a clear case of attempted killing. But the child seemed determined to live,” says Dr Harshinder Kaur, who’s monitoring the child’s progress.

She has personally researched the problem of declining child sex ratio in 48 villages of Patiala area. More than 68 per cent people inhabiting the belt don’t want girls.

Adoption Requests start pouring in

As the news spread that a day-old child had miraculously survived an ordeal, requests for adoptions began to pour in. In two weeks’ time, the district authorities received hundreds of formal requests – some from as far off as USA and Canada.

But they can’t process any of those till the time the child is declared fit for discharge. Also, she will have to be relocated at a shelter home authorized to handle adoption cases. Till such time, prospective parents will have to wait.

And they don’t mind. Reason: they believe the child is auspicious and will bring fortune to them. One of the hopefuls says: “That she lived proves she is the blessed and the chosen one. She’s God’s own child. The luckiest couple will have her.”

CS2 -

35 million tragedies 35 million Indian females are missing today. As the pendulum swings alarmingly towards a lopsided sex ratio, women are being reduced to fertility machines for male heirs, trafficked for marriage or even shared among brothers. Ruhani's visual narrative looks at some of those left behind. She is a freelance photojournalist and was awarded the National Foundation for India fellowship for 2005 to compile this photo-essay. Warning: Some of pictures in this presentation are quite graphic.

One son too many 16 years after the birth of the youngest of her seven daughters, 53-year-old Rani had a son. Villagers say she went into hiding during her alleged pregnancy, suggesting that she may have 'bought' this child even though she already has a 12-year old

grandson..

Street spirit After six daughters, when Kalpa got pregnant for the seventh time, her husband threw her out of the house on the grounds of her being a girl-bearing wretch. She gave birth to her seventh daughter on the streets, who died soon after. Kalpa now shares quarters with mentally unstable women at a short-stay shelter. Her husband has remarried since then.

A stillborn dream After the accidental death of her only child, an 18-year-old son, Shweta was desperate for another one. On the advice of a 'baba', she had a concoction of peacock feathers, gold ash and other such ingredients known to be laced with unhealthy arsenic levels. She did have a son, but due to a fusion deformity he was stillborn.

An endless journey Married off at the age of 13, Rajbala's reproductive journey began six months later. At 27 today, she is pregnant yet again, even though the youngest of her six daughters is barely 5 months old. Misdiagnosed by an ultrasound technician in the past, this time she can only pray that her mother-in-law's insistence for a male child is fulfilled. For now, she dresses her girls up as boys:

Against saner judgement Bani has conceived 11 times till date. While five of these ended in miscarriages, six of her daughters are alive. Feeling she is too poor to opt for any sex-selective techniques, she continues to try for a male child even though she has been medically advised against it.

An unfair price While sex selection is rampant amongst the well-to-do, it's the landless and those without government jobs who bear the brunt. Finding it difficult to get local brides, Dheeru, a 40-year old truck driver, arranged for two girls from Orissa for his younger brothers. He then got an 18-year old Bengali girl for himself. Allegedly, he often finds brides for his bachelor friends, but at a price.

Timeless pain Smita is a mentally-challenged woman from Rajasthan. Unable to even tie the strings, she has little memory of her past. She was given away to Jogi, a 32-year old male from Najafgarh who was finding it impossible to get a local girl.

Courting luckless lady 20-year old Chandni's neighbours brought her 11 months ago from Orissa to 'help' her settle in Delhi. Instead, she was married off to Jabbar, a 70-year old widower with six daughters who lives in a village in Haryana with his 60-year old bachelor brother. Already seven months pregnant, Chandni is being treated well for now, as her husband has found out that she is carrying a son.

Compromised choice The woman smoking the hookah is the mother of Satbir, a handicapped man with little land. A man in his situation usually has to shell out lots of money in order to find a bride from another state. So he settled for Sonia, a widow who brought her son from her first marriage.

Gender's sour harvest In rural Punjab, a desire to keep family holdings intact had led to the trend of polyandrous unions. A case in point; Kulwant Kaur. Now, faced with a severe shortage of women, only one or two brothers in a family manage to get married by showing their combined land as a single brother's share. And women from lower castes or those who've been 'purchased' from poorer regions end up as modern-day 'Draupadis'.

All in the family Jaspreet is married to the eldest brother in a family of five. For a while, she also had to look after the other four, as the family didn't have adequate land to show for all. In time, this arrangement allowed them to purchase more land and the middle brother got married to Veena. The two women now run adjoining houses, and take care of the remaining single brothers between them.

The killing past After her mother's death, Savita's father got a woman from Bengal for himself. Later, he married Savita off, fully aware of the role she'd have to play in a family that had three unmarried brothers. Like Savita, most women who find themselves in trafficking or polyandrous situations have a vulnerable past.

Prabhuji mein tori binti karoon Paiyan Paroon bar bar Agle Janam Mohe Bitiya Na Dije Narak Dije Chahe Dar...

Oh, God, I beg of you, I touch your feet time and again, Next birth don't give me a daughter, Give me Hell instead... --An old Folk Song From Uttar Pradesh