One-day-old’s cries save her from death

The mother, who tried to throw out her newborn girl from a train, had sold her first daughter six years ago.

Perhaps it was fate, or the alertness of others, or the auspicious aura of Janmastami that helped.

Wrapped in a garbage bag and about to be thrown away from a moving train by her mother, newborn Krishnaveni survived.

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Even the name was not given by Krishnaveni’s mother. Abandoned by her husband, Chitra, 36, had enough problems.

Six years ago, she had to sell her first child, another girl. She barely managed to make a living as a sex worker. But after she got pregnant, she almost had to starve. “She made it clear that she did not want this baby,” said social worker Lakshmi Raguram, who named the newborn. It was Raguram who saved the baby too.

On Wednesday, she was in the Chennai-bound local train, Raguram said. As the train approached Tambaram, passengers heard a child wailing. The sound appeared to come from a polythene bag carried by a woman who stood near the door. It was suspicious enough and they were alert. As the woman was about to fling out the bag, they caught her.