The
great Hindu epic, Mahabharata, describes a story, where Princess
Kunti, unwed daughter of the Yadava king 'Shurasena,' gave birth to
an illegitimate child. Kunti as a young princess, was devoted to the
service of the gods and guests, who visited the king. An irascible
sage 'Durvasa' was so much pleased with her service and devotion that
he taught her a mantra as a boon, that would enable her to have sons
from any god that she wished to invoke. Unfortunately, the young
princess Kunti did not fully realize the implications of this boon,
and overcome by curiosity, she decided to invoke Surya, the Sun God.
The mantra was, of course, potent and Surya appeared in person before
her. The powerful mantra also ensured that she was conceived by
Surya.
As an
unwed young mother, she had no choice but to abandon her child for
the fear of public disgrace as Sun God Surya would not help her in
caring for the newborn son, Karna. With heavy heart, she set the
child afloat in a basket on a river, praying with tears in her eyes.
Karna was picked up and reared by the charioteer Adhiratha and his
wife Radha. He grew up to be a brave warrior, an expert in archery, a
man noted for his generosity, but became an ally of the Kauravas, and
an arch enemy of the Pandavas, who were legitimate sons of same
Kunti, born after her marriage and therefore his own half brothers.
Rest of the story is really of no interest to us here.
From
this story, it may not be wrong to conclude that since time
immemorial, the problem of unwanted and abandoned children has been
there in every known human society. In one of the earliest surviving
examples of child abandonment in Greek and Roman culture is that of
Oedipus who is left to die as a baby in the hills by a herdsman
ordered to kill the baby, but is found and grows up. Wikipedia lists
that Moses, major prophet in Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, was
given up as an infant.
According
to one estimate, in USA alone, number of unwed mothers in 2011 was
1,607,773. I am not trying to say that all these new mothers wanted
to abandon their offspring. But even a small percentage of this
number would work out to be a big number. I could not find any
statistics for India or China, but the number is likely to be even
larger because of higher population base. In the local papers,
stories appear now and then of unknown persons dumping newborns near
the doors of orphanages and rarely even in Garbage dumps.
These
unfortunate infants are mostly taken care by orphanages, if they are
lucky enough to survive, and are given later mostly for adaptation to
childless couples from almost the world over, where they are well
taken care for. Greatest danger for such an abandoned baby however,
remains to be for the first few days or hours, when they are left
anonymously at some remote place.
It is
estimated that 10,000 children are abandoned in China each year.
Unfortunately many of these babies have disabilities or serious
illnesses or some kind of severe health problems and are abandoned
because their parents fear that they would not have enough money to
pay for expensive medical treatment. The past records show that only
one in such three abandoned babies, would survive.
Chinese
Government has now come up with a scheme, which is worth emulating by
others. The China Center for Children's Welfare and Adoption told the
state-run news agency, Xinhua, that more than two dozen small
enclosures in public places that are termed as baby hatches, had been
set up in China. These enclosures have an incubator and a delayed
alarm. Parents, who want to abandon their child, simply place the
child in the hatch, press an alarm button and then leave, remaining
anonymous, Someone then comes to retrieve the baby five to 10
minutes later. The baby hatches are expected to increase the chances
of a baby surviving.
The
first such baby hatch opened in the city of Shijiazhuang in Hebei
province in 2011. Each Chinese province has been told to set up at
least two baby hatches by the end of the year. So far, the Chinese
authorities have set up 25 "baby hatches" across the
country to allow parents to safely abandon their unwanted infants.
Number of baby hatches have opened in the last few months. The baby
hatch in Guangzhou, received 79 babies in its first 15 days.
Like
anywhere else in the world, abandoning a child is illegal in China.
But what happens actually on ground is quite different. Health
authorities believe that the hatches provide a safe environment for
something that would go on anyway. Without any doubt, baby hatches
give the infants a better chance of survival than if they were dumped
on the street.
There
has been a criticism that these baby hatches could encourage people
to give up their babies. Just like in India, Chinese families
traditionally favour boys. Critics say that since the families can
have only one child, the girls might get abandoned so that the
parents can try again for a boy. But the experience so far shows
that the babies left in the new hatches are both boys and girls.
Also, notes, cash or medical records are found tucked inside the
baby's clothing and are left behind with the baby. This shows that
parents abandon their infants woth most reluctance.
I feel
that this Chinese social measure, is very innovative and path
breaking. The poor abandoned infants, who have arrived in this world
for no fault of theirs, have for the first time a real chance to
survive and survive well.
18th
February 2014
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