Odisha worker delivers baby in school van

Husband struggles to make ends meet, says he has no money for food and sleeps on the pavement near Niloufer.
Nabi Nihal, a migrant worker from Odisha who delivered a baby in a school van, along with the infant on Tuesday.
Nabi Nihal, a migrant worker from Odisha who delivered a baby in a school van, along with the infant on Tuesday.

HYDERABAD:  In a shocking instance of administrative apathy, a migrant worker from Odisha delivered a baby in a school van near the MGBS on Monday evening. The woman, Nabi Nihal and her husband Durga Prasad work in a brick kiln at Makthal in Mahbubnagar. The couple also has a two-year-old daughter named Jogeshwari.

Nabi Nihal, a migrant worker from Odisha
who delivered a baby in a school van,
along with the infant on Tuesday

They came to the bus station in Hyderabad on April 13 anticipating that buses would resume after the lockdown ended since they were eager to go back to their native place, Nuapada in Odisha. With bus services cancelled, they took shelter inside a school van at the Kali Kabar area, which is opposite MGBS Bus Station. The owner of the van allowed them to stay since it had to be repaired.  

“The locals helped me with food and water. Sometimes, even the police and NGOs gave us food to eat. However, on Monday my wife went into labour and I panicked,” said her 22-year-old husband Durga Prasad. A local police patrol team, which was driving past, noticed the predicament of the woman and called an ambulance. But as her pains grew worse, they brought in local midwives who helped Nabi deliver a baby boy inside the school van. 

“We happened to be there at the time when she was in labour at around 4 pm. We immediately called the midwives who helped her in the delivery. We will shift them to a shelter home,” said J Naresh Yadav, police constable at Mirchowk police station limits. After Nabi delivered, a 108 ambulance arrived and the family was taken to Niloufer Hospital.

However, their woes did not end there. When Express spoke to Nabi’s husband Durga Prasad at Niloufer Hospital, he poured out his grief. “In the morning, my two-year-old daughter and I walked nearly five km to the bus station and picked up our belongings. We reached back after two hours. We haven’t had a proper meal in two days because I have no money,” he said. Durga Prasad says he has spent all his wages (`3,000) earned at the brick kiln on medicines and food in the last 15 days. They have not received any help in terms of the KCR kit. He currently sleeps on pavement outside Niloufer Hospital along with his daughter.

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