Lucknow: Insects crawl over newborn girl dumped in the bushes

LUCKNOW: In the ninth such case in the city, a newborn girl was abandoned in the bushes in Vasant Vihar area of Thakurganj on Monday.
Sambhari Kumar, a resident of Bhagwant Nagar, heard cries of a baby and paused to look to find the newborn lying without clothes. Ants and insects were crawling on and biting into her flesh, said police.
Kumar picked up the baby and cleaned her before dialling UP 100.Half an hour later, two policemen took the girl to Rani Laxmi Bai Hospital where doctors referred her to Lok Bandhu Hospital. She is undergoing treatment in the neonatal intensive care unit.
From January 1, nine newborns—seven girls and two boys—have been found abandoned in the city. The figure in 2016 was 11 and eight in 2017.
Childline members Krishna Pratap Sharma and Neha Kashyap also reached the hospital and informed Lucknow’s Child Welfare Committee (CWC), a quasi-judicial body formed under the Juvenile Justice (Care & Protection of Children) Act.
CWC member Sangeeta Sharma said, “The girl was brought to the hospital in critical condition. However, she seems to be stable but is under observation. We will send her to the shelter home in Motinagar.”
Thakurganj SI Ravi Shankar said, “We are inquiring about births in nearby hospitals in the past 24 hours to trace the parents of the baby.”
Preference of male child and financial constraints are the two big reasons why girls are mostly abandoned by families, while boys are mainly abandoned by unwed mothers, said a Childline member.