BHUBANESWAR: An infant bought by a 42-year-old childless rag picker for ₹10,000 from its parents, also rag pickers, has been rescued by the police and a non-profit in Odisha capital Bhubaneswar, people familiar with the matter said on Saturday.
The 10-day-old boy has been sent to Subhadra Mahatab Seva Sadan, a special adoption agency for rehabilitation in Bhubaneswar.
The woman who bought the infant on June 14 has been arrested on charges of illegal adoption and buying a child. Police said they are yet to trace the biological parents who are missing.
“The biological parents wanted to sell this baby as they had no money to survive on the streets,” said Benudhar Senapati of Childline, the NGO that was first tipped off about the baby’s sale. Senapati said their initial inquiries have led them to believe that the father may have driven the deal to feed his addiction to drugs and alcohol.
Arun Kumar Swain, inspector in-charge of the Kharvel Nagar police station, said the police rescued the baby on a tip off from the NGO.
“The nomadic couple who sold their child are rag pickers. The woman, Sumedin Bibi, who bought the baby is also into ragpicking and knew about the birth. As she was childless, she asked the couple to give her the child. The child’s father asked for ₹10,000 which she paid at her home at Malisahi,” said inspector Swain.
{{/usCountry}}“The nomadic couple who sold their child are rag pickers. The woman, Sumedin Bibi, who bought the baby is also into ragpicking and knew about the birth. As she was childless, she asked the couple to give her the child. The child’s father asked for ₹10,000 which she paid at her home at Malisahi,” said inspector Swain.
{{/usCountry}}Stories of child sale are not uncommon in Odisha, once infamous for its poverty in 80s and 90s as scores of poverty-ridden families sold off their sons and daughters to well-off families unable to feed them. Western Odisha districts like Kalahandi and Bolangir are replete with examples of child sale. In 1985, the sale of 2-year-old tribal girl Banita to a blind man for as little as ₹40 and a saree by her sister-in-law Phanas Punji brought the poverty of the state into the limelight. Though Odisha’s per capita income has risen sharply from what it was back then, its real per capita income has consistently remained below the national average.
In October last year, police in Sambalpur district rescued a one-month-old girl from a couple who had allegedly bought her from an impoverished couple for ₹15,000.