AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

NT Bureau
Chennai, Sept 26:

        At least ten separate cases of infants abandoned in garbage bins, footpaths and hospitals have been reported in the last three months in Chennai.

        In the latest case last week, a baby wrapped in a polythene cover with its feet sticking out was rescued by police near Marina beach.

        An officer with the child helpline said 'we receive at least four calls a month from Egmore Children's hospital about abandoned babies'.

        The officer said, these babies are handed over to a welfare organisation which takes care and offers them for adoption.

        A senior police officer said 'poverty and fear of ostracism are the major reasons behind such cases.

        'Most cases involved (babies from) pre-marital sex which forced women to abandon them. In other cases the abandoned babies were females'.

        Investigators said most abandoned babies were born at private nursing homes, which admit pregnant women without confirming their marital status.

        A social worker said 'parents from middle-class and lower income groups disown infants which are born with health defects such as congenial heart disease because they could not afford treatment.