Woman rescues six-day-old baby abandoned in biting cold

BHUBANESHWAR: A woman rescued a six-day-old boy abandoned on a road in a cold winter night in Odishas Kandhamal district. She found the infant, who was crying and shivering in the cold though wrapped in a piece of cloth, on the roadside near a school in Phulbani town on late Sunday night.

The 42-year-old Dalit woman took the baby home, tended him and later handed him over to Childline officials. The boy, who was apparently six days old, was hospitalised, said Suprava Nayak, a counsellor of Childline.

The woman and her daughter were returning home from a relative's place at around 11.30 pm when they found the child. After taking him home, they kept him warm by lighting a fire and called up the Childline number 1098 to report the matter, Nayak said.

A Childline team reached her home at around 2.30 am, took the baby from her and admitted him to a government hospital. The baby has been kept in a ventilator and his condition is critical, attending doctors said.

Following a complaint lodged by Childline, the police are investigating the case. It is suspected that after the birth of the child, his mother kept him with her for five days, before abandoning him.