The cradle baby scheme was first started in Tamil Nadu, and there are different versions of it in effect across the country.
On October 28, children coming to a madrassa in Thiruvannur in Kozhikode, Kerala found something odd. Around 8.30 am, they noticed along with the slippers outside the mosque, a small bundle. It turned out to be a baby girl – just four days old. There was a note too: “Please name the child as you wish. Please look after this infant considering her a gift from Allah. We are giving back what Allah gave us, to his abode. Do give the child BCG, Polio and Hepatitis B vaccination.”
A week since, the mother of the child has been identified – a 21-year-old woman, reportedly unmarried – and has been arrested. “The baby was shifted to a hospital for a few days, and once it was determined that she was in good health, we moved her to a government run home,” a source from the Kozhikode Child Welfare Committee told TNM.
But in a country where ‘cradle baby schemes’ exist – where the government promises to care for abandoned children and provides for mechanisms for parents who are unable to care for their children, why was the young woman arrested? And are such arrests common?
The answer, according to Child Welfare officials that TNM spoke to, lies in the manner in which parents choose to give up their children.