Newborn girl sold for delivery expenses at clinic in Odisha!

Kendrapara: Even as the government intensifies ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’ programme to curb injustice meted out to the baby girls from mother’s womb, another shocking incident reported from Odisha’s Kendrapara town where a newborn girl was allegedly sold for paying delivery fee at a private clinic.

The poor parents sold their newborn at only Rs 7,500 for paying the medical expenses for delivery at the nursing home.

According to reports, on August 1, Nirakar Moharana of Righagarh village under Rajanagar block had taken her pregnant wife Gitanjali Moharana to Kendrapara district headquarters hospital where the doctors referred the patient to be admitted to Surya Nursing Home for delivery. Gitanjali delivered a baby girl at the clinic. However, the clinic authority demanded the couple to pay Rs 7,500 towards medical expenses.

When the poor couple expressed their helplessness to pay the medical charges, the clinic staff had arranged a buyer for selling the baby girl. Finally, the baby was sold at Rs 7,500 and the buyer took away the newborn with him paying few cash (Rs 500 to Niarakar and Rs 1,000 to Gitanjali). The couple returned their village selling their newborn girl.

When the incident came to fore, the couple clarified that they were bound to sell their baby due to pressure mounted on them by the clinic authority to pay the delivery expenses. They confessed the selling of their child out of poverty. As the couple already has two daughters, they expressed their inability to bear expenses of raising another daughter.