Our Child assistance Booth (CAB) received a call from Delhi Sarai Rohilla’s Government Rail Police (GRP) on 10th of August 2020. In this call, the GRP personnel said “We have found a baby girl at the station, who looks only 10 -15 days old!” During the call, they requested support from the female staff of the CAB who immediately reached the GRP office, taking charge of the care of protection of the baby.
Our team member found the baby lying on the table at the Police Station, for her safety. Lukewarm milk was fed to the baby immediately and further investigation on how the child reached the platform began. Our CAB staff started inquiring with several railway staff who were working on the platform at the time. Despite a lot of effort, the CAB and GRP were unable to trace any clue as to how the baby girl arrived at the railway station.
After much deliberation, the CAB staff and GRP collectively decided to contact the Railway Protection Force (RPF), seeking video surveillance footage. After spending a lot of time watching video footage of all the locations at the railway station, the GRP found a special time slot where a woman entered the railway station through a railway track and goes straight to platform numbers 2 and 3 by climbing the stairs. The video footage also showed her holding a baby when she entered the station, and not holding a baby as she exits the station. This confirmed that the baby had been abandoned by the lady. The video footage received by the GRP of Delhi Sarai Rohilla from RPF sent to all the GRP stations including the Police Control Room and local police stations immediately, as evidence.
As the story unfolded it was found that the baby girl’s father was unaware that his wife had left their child at the station. When he reached home and he did not find her, he became restless. When he asked her wife about her, she started crying and said that she left her someplace. Immediately, he reached out to his local police station and requested them to register a complaint about his missing child. As per the description provided by the father, the police personnel showed him the video which was sent by the GRP of Sarai Rohilla. After watching the video clip he immediately recognized his child. After receiving all the details, the parents and some relatives of the child immediately rushed to the Delhi Sarai Rohilla railway station and requested the GRP police station to return the child.
When the mother of the child arrived at the police station she started crying in regret and said that “I made a terrible mistake and I will never do this again! I get very upset when someone said to me that I am incapable of giving birth to a male child. I already have two girls!” she confided. Our team members counselled her on the consequences of abandoning her own child. She was also made aware of the legal implications of abandoning her child. During the counselling session, she shared about being constantly taunted about not having any boys, about her husband feeling the same way, and feeling ashamed of herself. The counselling session went deeper, and addressed the topic of gender and it being out of her control, in addition to recommending speaking to a doctor and understanding real facts.
“I was in a dilemma that maybe I have some kind of problem due to I am unable to give birth to a boy, but after getting information today, I realize I have no such deficiency,” she admitted to the CAB team.
The GRP of Delhi Sarai Rohilla Railway Station booked a case against the mother of the child for abandoning her child at the railway station and also informed the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) about the same. After knowing all the facts, the CWC of Sewa Kutir also talked with the mother over the phone and counselled her. In the rehabilitation process, the CWC stated that if the mother and father are ready to take the full responsibility of the baby child then, in that case, she must be handed over to her parents. The CWC booked the case under their jurisdiction and instructed the GRP to hand over all the documents to them.
A few days ago, RCI staff did a physical verification of the family and found that the baby was healthy and being cared for by her mother. During interaction with the family, the team got to know that a case related to this child is also registered into the CWC and CWC also conducted multiple counselling sessions with her mother. Currently, the CWC is looking into this matter very seriously, to ensure the well-being of the child at home.
