BENGALURU: With a view to encourage safe surrendering of infants and to prevent people from abandoning them in dustbins, garbage or drains, the District Children Protection Unit is encouraging the ‘Mamatheya Thottilu’ programme.
The programme allows the parents of an infant to leave it in the cradles placed at 42 locations in Bengaluru city without the fear of being caught by officials or even police.
Meenakshi S Kabedi, District Child Protection Officer in Bengaluru East, said, “The purpose of Mamatheya Thottilu programme or ‘cradle of compassion’ is to ensure that the child is not harmed as it would be when abandoned at random places. It also ensures that every abandoned child enters the adoption system legally and ethically. In most POCSO cases, girls realise too late that they are pregnant after sexual abuse or having unprotected sex. They often tend to abandon the child, fearing police action and punishment.”
She added, “Such children can be left in these cradles. They are placed at seven locations in the east zone of Bengaluru with no CCTV monitoring. The locations include C V Raman General Hospital, the Primary Health Centres in Varthur and Avalahalli, St Micheal’s Home Convent, Shishu Mandir and Taluk hospital and DCPO in K R Puram. The mothers can also call 1098 or 112, and we will make sure that the infant is collected confidentially. We lay more stress on child protection than child adoption now.”
Haleema, the project director at the Directorate of Child Protection, said 25 infants were found abandoned in public places across the State in the past year alone.
“The Mamatheya Thottilu programme has completed a year now. So far, we have received only one infant. The programme also facilitates safe surrender of differently abled children, so that they can be taken care at institutions run by the government, as well as NGOs. There are 21 government-run child adoption agencies in 21 districts and 24 privately run specialised adoption agencies operated by NGOs. This financial year, we have so far facilitated the adoption of 190 children, and the number is likely to go up in the remaining four months. Two children are eligible for inter-country (foreign) adoption, and the process is in progress.”
Karnataka is not the first state to implement the Mamatheya Thottilu programme. Tamil Nadu was the first, followed by Kerala, and then it was adopted in other states, including Karnataka. Child rights protection experts said Tamil Nadu launched the programme after cases of female infanticide started rising in Usilampatti.
Child rights activist Nagasimha G Rao said, “There are grey areas, as this may encourage abandonment of female children. However, instead of being killed or discriminated against in families by their biological parents, these girls will at least be taken into good care in child care institutions and put up for adoption. They will grow up in a respectable family and get a good education.”