CHENNAI: An unwanted and unfortunate pregnancy of a Class X student was at last medically terminated at the Government Raja Sir Ramaswamy Mudaliar Hospital, Royapuram on Thursday, 23 days after it was detected that she was eight weeks pregnant and two days after the Madras High Court directed the doctors to perform the abortion.
Even if it has brought a sense of relief to the girl’s mother, a 37-year-old illiterate woman working for a textile showroom in north Chennai, and Sherin Bosko, a social activist running a rape crisis centre, the 16-year-old girl, who fell for the charms of a ‘family friend’ and became pregnant, lost an academic year as she was forced to miss her board examinations due to the antipathy of doctors at the government hospital.
The girl was first admitted to Stanley Medical College hospital on February 27 and the doctors detected that she was pregnant on March 3. Then, she was shifted to the RSRM hospital with the help of Nakshatra, the NGO run by Bosko. Given the nature of the case, which is technically rape as the girl is aged below 18, a request was made to the hospital for medical termination of pregnancy (MTP).
“However, the superintendent of RSRM hospital refused to conduct the MTP till a case was filed against the family friend,” Bosko told Express, narrating the long drawn legal battle that she had to take up with the help of human rights lawyer, Sudha Ramalingam.
Initially, the girl and the mother were reluctant to lodge the complaint. They were coerced to go for a written complaint with the police on March 10, which led to the arrest and subsequent remand of the family friend, Suresh Kumar.
“But the superintendent of RSRM hospital refused to carry out the MTP procedure even after production of the copy of the complaint and demanded a court order,” said Bosko, adding that the doctor did not budge even when told that the girl might miss the public examinations beginning on March 17.
After all requests and prayers failed to move the hospital superintendent till March 22, a writ petition was filed before the Madras High Court on March 23. The order was passed on March 24 and MTP carried out on March 26.
Bosko saw the attitude of the doctors as ‘victimisation’. At the hospital Bosko was asked why she was accompanying and helping ‘these people’, who would not change.
“I found the doctors so arrogant. Also the ignorance of POCSO law was the reason behind the apathy towards children and women from lower economic strata of society,” she said.