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Minor performs last rites of HIV mother as family abandons her
The girl’s elder brother left the mother and began living with his paternal uncle, but the girl stuck by her mother and they somehow managed to eke out a living.
A 14-year-old girl lit the funeral pyre of her mother, an HIV positive patient, who had died at a government hospital in Indore last week. The woman had been abandoned by her family after they got to know of her HIV positive status. The minor girl managed to perform the last rites of her mother thanks to the intervention of some social workers.
The minor girl had lost her father in 2011. Soon after her father’s death, her mother was diagnosed with HIV. The girl’s elder brother left the mother and began living with his paternal uncle, but the girl stuck by her mother and they somehow managed to eke out a living.
“The mother and daughter were living in very poor conditions. Around one-and-a-half-month ago, the woman was admitted to the government hospital after her condition deteriorated. She died last week and subsequently, her body was kept in the mortuary. When the girl informed her brother and uncle about her mother’s death, neither of them came forward to claim her body and perform her last rites,” said Manju Chaudhary, member Childline, Indore.
Since the girl was a minor, the officials could not hand over the body to her. She ended up roaming around the hospital where her mother’s body was kept, said the official.
On Monday, when the girl came to know that the hospital administration had decided to cremate the woman as an unclaimed body, she began crying but was afraid to approach any official.
A few social workers saw her crying alone. After hearing of her ordeal and plight, they decided to help her perform her mother’s last rites.
But that wasn’t the end of the girl’s ordeal. A woman had expressed interest in adopting her.
“We were informed about the situation on Monday as a woman, who claimed to be a friend of the deceased, showed interest in adopting the girl,” Chaudhary said.
“The girl neither expressed her willingness or unwillingness to go with the woman. But since the girl was in obvious trauma, Childline handed the matter over to the Child Welfare Committee (CWC), Indore, to decide the girl’s fate,” Chaudhary said.
CWC chairperson Maya Pandey said, “The girl’s brother and paternal uncle requested us to hand the girl over to them as they didn’t trust the woman who wanted to adopt her. So we sent her to her brother on Tuesday.”
