Get newborn clicked with family to avoid swapping controversies: NCSC member

Nitish Sharma

Tribune News Service

Kurukshetra, September 11

National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) member Ishwar Singh has a suggestion for the state government to avoid cases of babies being swapped at birth.

He suggested, “After the delivery, first of all the on duty doctor must handover the child to the father or the grandfather of the newborn and get their pictures clicked so that there remains no scope of any controversy regarding swapping of babies.”

Singh was in the district to visit Kalsana village and inquire a matter where a family from the village accused Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Hospital staff of swapping babies.

Talking to mediapersons at the hospital, he said: “It is a matter of concern that three cases of baby swapping have been reported in a short period of time. Besides the Kalsana case, there is a baby girl at the civil hospital in Panipat and another case from Karnal’s Uncha Samana village.”

“A letter will be sent to the Chief Secretary that some procedure should be adopted for the verification to avoid such controversies in future”, he added. Singh said, “I met the family, villagers, hospital staff and district officials today and their statements have been recorded. Investigation report submitted by the police has also been studied.”

The family has alleged that the woman had delivered a boy and they had given Rs 500 to a nurse as ‘badhayi’ after the boy’s birth. Meanwhile, the hospital management claimed the woman had given birth to a girl.

“It seems there was some miscommunication between the family and hospital staff that led to this situation. A DNA test will be conducted to settle the dispute. The samples will be taken on September 15 and further action will be taken after it,” he added.