Azhar Qadri
SRINAGAR: Muslim-majority Kashmir is witnessing a dark trend of abandonment of newborn babies.
The latest entrant into the list is a day-old boy, who was left on the stairs of a Sufi shrine in the city, taking the number of abandoned babies to four in January and three in the last two days.
The boy, wrapped in a blanket and shivering, was found today afternoon by police personnel on the stairs of Makhdoom Sahab shrine in Srinagar, a senior police officer said.
The police shifted the newborn to GB Pant Hospital, Kashmir’s only children hospital, where he is being treated for mild hypothermia, caused by exposure to cold weather.
At a little distance from GB Pant Hospital, a prematurely born infant girl was abandoned at Lal Ded Hospital today, a senior doctor at the hospital said. She is the second newborn to be abandoned in a day and third in the last two days.
The abandonment of newborns shows a grim situation that is emerging in the Kashmir valley, a society which is otherwise close-knit and where families share a strong bond.
In January, the number of abandoned babies has reached to four: Two men yesterday brought in an infant girl for treatment at GB Pant Hospital and abandoned her in the casualty ward.
Recommended: Last year, 20 newborns were abandoned at Kashmir hospitals
Doctors say they are not aware of the reasons for the abandonment of these babies.
A sociologist, however, said multiple factors were responsible for the trend. Prof Bashir Ahmad Dabla blamed costly marriages, increasing immorality, movies and the IT revolution for the problem.
“This trend can be directly related to multiple factors. One is the materialistic outlook which ignores morality and religious principles. Second is the increase in premarital and extramarital affairs,” said professor Dabla, who heads the Department of Sociology at the University of Kashmir.
Professor Dabla said “building a value-based society” and providing “costless” marriages could be a remedy for keeping a check on the trend.
In recent years, marriages in Kashmir have become an extravagant affair where lakhs of rupees are spent on food and gifts, making it a costly affair for many families.
“Everyone has contributed to the problem in his or her way. We all are responsible equally so the remedy also lies with us,” he said.
In December, a newborn baby, who was born out of the wedlock, was thrown into a stream in Kupwara district of north Kashmir. The baby’s body was recovered and a doctor was arrested on charges of murder.
(TNS)
