Orphans in the womb

In the maternity ward of a government hospital in Mumbai, new mothers patiently rock their babies to sleep. Some of them are dozing off themselves under whirring fans. A few newborns, their eyes scrunched shut, cry waiting to be picked up and held close.
In this austere place where there is a certain peace and general well-being, one mother lies next to a vacant white cradle.There is no sign of sleep in this woman's eyes. She is impatient and wants to be discharged. But this unwed mother has to wait till her baby, kept in a separate ward on another floor, finds an adoptive agency to take care of the issue.
In a country where parents fast and go on pilgrimages to pray for a child, there is a growing number of unwed mothers who want to overtly and officially abandon their babies.
The emerging liberalism of the society is ensuring that such women, who are not always from a poor background as believed, do not leave their babies in trash cans or on the footsteps of temples or in other places where newborns are sometimes found.
Once a woman has decided to abandon her child, there is a legal provision that lets her do so in a more humane way. She can seek the help of doctors and social workers in hospitals and after delivery relinquish the child to a government agency.
In the absence of a single comprehensive adoption law, procedures such as relinquishment are broadly governed by guidelines laid down in a 1984 Supreme Court order (Laxmikant Pandey vs Union of India) and by the Central Adoption Resource Authority.
Adoption procedures differ from state to state. In Andhra Pradesh, relinquishing a child for reasons of poverty, number of children or gender is prohibited. The Maharashtra government, over the years, has ensured that the system of relinquishing babies is well organised.
"Relinquishment is often the last choice for mothers," says Sunil Arora, administrator of Bal Asha Trust, an adoptive agency. Most of them will first try and medically terminate the pregnancy. Hospitals say that the number of abortions has gradually increased in the last decade.
If four months of pregnancy have passed and abortion is deemed risky by hospitals, some women would still go to quacks. Those who are scared of the medical repercussions of abortion would carry the baby for the full term, pretend to be married and admit themselves in government hospitals.
Once the baby is born, they would desert the child and flee. It is to ensure that such desperate acts are not committed that the government has encouraged the system by which mothers can officially relinquish her newborn.
The trauma of abandoning a child due to social pressures or more personal reasons is so immense that even in the shelter of the legitimate way of doing it, the instinct of unwed mothers is to flee from the maternity ward as soon as possible.
There was a case, a few years ago, when a mother tried to strangulate the baby because she was getting frustrated by her forced stay in the hospital. Since then the hospital has kept such babies away from the mothers right from the time of birth.
Some hospitals, to avoid emotional complications in the unwed mother, do not allow her to breastfeed the child she has decided to relinquish to ensure that no bond develops between them. In other places, breast feeding is encouraged because it is good for the child.
During pregnancy, social workers have to constantly counsel the mothers so that they are able to handle the situation they are in. Most of them are tensed till they are assured that they don't have to go back home with the child.
"It is important that they don't worry too much because that will affect the health of the unborn child," says a social worker with KEM Hospital. Sometimes, social workers offer to rehabilitate the mothers through employment opportunities so that they will find the motivation and the financial strength to raise the child. But hardly anyone takes it up.
Some social workers admit to witnessing an attitudinal change over the years. "Earlier they used to weep. Nowadays, even if the mothers feel anything, they are careful not to express their emotions. They and their family members are very matter-of-fact," says a social worker with 30 years of experience in the field.
A gynaecologist in Mumbai remembers a maid servant who was so used to the entire process that every time she got pregnant she would admit herself in the hospital, deliver the child, relinquish it and leave. Such cases though are rare.
There is no set pattern that can help in generalising the profile of unwed mothers who relinquish their babies. They are from a broad age ground. Some mothers have been around 14 years old.
They are generally from lower socio-economic backgrounds but there are college students too who opt for relinquishment after the abortion stage has passed. There are cases of incest too brothers making their sisters pregnant. Commercial sex workers too, turn up.
The relinquishment deed is an affidavit drawn up on a Rs 100-stamp paper which the biological mother has to sign in the presence of a witness, a notary advocate, the adoption agency that will take the baby, the social worker of the hospital and a member of the Indian Council of Social Welfare, a scrutinising agency ordered by the Bombay High Court to be present on such occasions.
The deed mentions the name of the mother, her age, address and the reasons why she wants to give up the child. The mother is also briefed on her rights she is given a time of 60 days to change her mind. From the 61st day, she loses all rights over her child.
A pregnant woman who is aware of the relinquishment system usually approaches a hospital through its social worker. Sometimes alone, mostly accompanied by a friend or a distant relative who poses as her mother. "We, then, ask her to come back with her real parents.
We also check all information against documents like ration card, electricity bill and election card. Only in rare cases where a woman seems extremely cagey about getting her parents, or if she is a minor whose case seems complicated, do we involve the police. Otherwise we do not like to queer the situation further for the unwed mother," says social worker Ram Meghare.
This might be a gloomy parallel system but it has saved countless children from a common Indian cradle called the trash can.