Chandigarh: After Supreme Court refuses to give permission to 10 year old rape victim to abort 30 week fetus now the girl delivered a baby girl at the Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32, Chandigarh around 9:32am on Thursday. Both the mother and new-born are safe.
At the time of filing the story, the mother was still in the operation theatre, while the new born had been shifted to Neo-natal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).
“The new-born is premature, and weighs less than 2.1 kilogram as the delivery took place in 35 weeks. But she is fine,” said one of the sources. The delivery was done via a Caesarian section, which was scheduled from 9am to 11am.
The child was too young for a normal delivery. Her pelvic bones are not strong enough to push the baby and she doesn’t have the stamina to bear the labour pains,” said one of the officials.
According to sources, the girl does not know that she has delivered a baby, as she has only been told that she has a stone in her stomach.
The 10-year-old girl was allegedly raped by her maternal uncle, a hotel worker, repeatedly over seven months. The girl’s family hails from Nepal and has been residing in a servant quarter in one of the sectors in Chandigarh.
Her parents got to know about the child’s pregnancy when she complained of stomach ache. By that time, the child was nearly 30-week pregnant, hence abortion was not an option.
The child is in the hospital’s care until the doctors find her healthy enough to be discharged. After that, the Child Welfare Committee will be the custodian of the child as the family has already decided to give up the child for adoption, a term that is legally called “surrender”.
The child will be kept at Aashiana, the state adoption agency for two months after which she the state will start the process of adoption. Instructions have been given to district child protection unit to take over the case for the process of surrender.
Neil Roberts, Chairperson of the Child Welfare Committee, explains the entire process. The girl’s parents will be educated about the ‘application form for surrender’ under the Juvenile Justice Act. They will fill it and submit it to the Child Welfare Committee (CWC).
Usually we counsel such family 4-5 times. But in this case since the parents have already given it in writing that they do not want to keep the new-born, we will counsel them once to educate them about the entire process,” said Neil Roberts, Chairperson, Child Welfare Committee.
He said that then the deed for surrender will be signed on a stamp paper. “Once the child is declared legally free for adoption. The details, including the certificate and medical report, are uploaded on the concerned website,” he said.
The concerned website has details of children up for adoption and parents who want to adopt the child. “Online matching will take place, where details of children are sent to selected parents according to their demands. They are given 48 hours to confirm.”
Once they confirm, the case goes to the district court via a specialized adoption agency. The moment the case goes to court, the child can be handed over to the parents under pre-adoptive foster care.
The Court generally takes three to five months. “In this case, we are hopeful that the child will get foster parents in less than a year, as many families want new-borns, irrespective of the gender,” said Neil Roberts.
