Mother abandoned baby so she could feed two other children

Speaking to The Indian Express, the woman said her husband abandoned her and the children about three months ago.

It was her blue salwar kameez and pink dupatta that led Mumbai Police to a 26-year-old commercial sex worker, who allegedly abandoned her infant at Haji Ali dargah, Worli, on June 26.

Defending her decision, the woman, released on bail after a week in prison, said that she had no other choice. She had to decide between earning a livelihood as she had two more children to feed or keep the baby, she says.

“Leaving him at the dargah was the toughest decision I have made. But I had no other option. An hour later, when I realised what I had done was wrong, I returned to the dargah to take my child back but I saw police looking for the mother. I got scared and fled,” she says.

Speaking to The Indian Express, the woman said her husband abandoned her and the children about three months ago. She will now undergo DNA tests, which will confirm if she is the biological mother of the child, now being looked after by an NGO attached to the Children’s Home in Dongri. “Within ten days, it will be confirmed whether she is his biological mother. After that, we will record her statement before Child Welfare Committee officials, following which the infant will be listed for adoption,” a police officer said.

Towards June-end, police were informed about an abandoned child at the dargah. Tardeo police registered a case under Section 317 (exposure and abandonment of child under 12 years by parent or person having care of it).

Police traced the woman after scanning footage of CCTV cameras installed at Haji Ali and the roads leading to Alexandra Theatre, Kamathipura. In the footage, she was seen entering the dargah with her child covered in a red blanket. “CCTV footage showed her enter the 14th road in Kamathipura. From all these leads, we managed to locate her,” the officer said.

On June 27, when police found her, she was wearing the same clothes she wore to the dargah. “Two constables sent to track her found her in the same clothes. We then sent a team of woman constables, who took her in custody and brought her to the police station,” the officer said.

She said that after her husband left them, she – a mother of three children (a nine-year-old son, a seven-year-old daughter and the eight-month-old infant) – was left all alone to look after them. She said that she has to pay a rent of Rs 250 per day for the room where she stays. “After I couldn’t pay the landlord, he threatened to throw me out of the house. I decided to stop my elder son’s school and made him take care of the infant,” she says.

Her two older children are looked after by NGO Prerana. The children go to school during the day and spend the night at the NGO’s office. Around 50 children are cared for by the NGO, where they take shelter at night. The mothers of these children are also commercial sex workers. “After school, they come to our NGO, study for a while, watch television and go to sleep. They usually see their mothers in the morning after which they again go to school,” said NGO worker Mugdha Dandekar.

“I stayed at home, took care of the infant for a few days. But when money got over, I decided to stop my eldest son’s school,” the arrested woman said.

Two months later, when school authorities informed the NGO that the nine-year-old boy had stopped attending school, NGO workers put him back in school. “We did not even ask her, we just took the nine-year-old and dropped him at school. He is a second standard student now while his younger sister is in first standard,” said NGO worker Chhaya Jagtap.

After her arrest, the two children are lodged at Mankhurd children’s home while the infant is being looked after by an NGO at the Dongri remand home.

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