Ambulance numbers not working, Noida woman delivers baby on rickshaw

Her husband drove her to the hospital in an engine-driven rickshaw, but she delivered before they could reach

A 32-year-old woman delivered her child when she was being rushed to a hospital around 10km away on an engine-driven rickshaw on Monday. Both the child and the mother are safe, doctors said.

Both the women and her child are safe, according to doctors. (Representative image/Shutterstock)

When the woman went into labour on Sunday night, her husband, Anil Kumar, 36, tried calling the government’s emergency ambulance numbers — 102 and 108 — but to no avail. Kumar said his call did not connect to the 108 number, while on dialling 102, the call would connect, and then get disconnected.

“At 10:45pm on Sunday, my wife had mild labour pain and my brother Shivam started calling the emergency numbers, but all in vain. I called private taxis too, but the operators refused to come to the spot. It was 11:30pm by then and a neighbour told me to rush her to the hospital on my engine-driven rickshaw,” said Kumar.

He drove the vehicle from Behlolpur village in Sector 63 and took a flyover near Sector 61 to reach the district hospital in Sector 30. However, there he found that the road to the hospital was dug up and closed.

“I took another route via Noida City Centre to reach the hospital. After crossing the Golf Course metro station, my wife Manju delivered the baby girl near Nithari village around 12:45am,” Kumar added.

The engine-driven rickshaw is locally known as ‘jugaad’. It is illegal, but such vehicles ply in Noida and Ghaziabad regularly.

A father of four daughters, Kumar said a woman from the neighbourhood accompanying them helped deliver the baby and both his wife and daughter are doing well at the hospital.

Kumar, from Mainpuri district in Uttar Pradesh, has been living in Noida for seven years. He transports goods within the city on his ‘jugaad’.

Gautam Budh Nagar district magistrate, BN Singh, said, “It is a fact that the man has suffered a lot. An inquiry has been initiated to ascertain why the emergency numbers could not be connected.”