By Bhavita Kukreja:
Have any of us ever wondered how difficult it would be for a mother to sell her child to another woman owing to reasons beyond her control? Now you might be wondering why any mother would sell her child for any reason whatsoever. It after all is the dream of every woman to become a progenitor. However, in our society, many women are forced to compromise with this dream of theirs and bow down to circumstances they can do nothing about.
In one such incident, a poverty stricken woman from Bihar’s Samastipur district sold her one-and-half-year old malnourished son for a sum of rupees nineteen thousand to another woman, just because she had to repay her debt. Can anyone even realise the plight of this woman who bore her son for nine months in her womb and then had to sell him off because she was under the curse of a heavy debt? To many of us nineteen thousand may mean a whole lot of money, but then what would you have to say if I mention yet another case where a woman sold her son to a Nepalese couple for a minimal amount of rupees sixty-two. Yes you read it right, for an amount of rupees sixty-two. When we spend this amount in getting our mobile recharge done or gorging on a slice of pizza, we never tend to realise that for an amount as minimal as this, someone would sell their child. However this happens to be the ground reality of our country where forty percent of the total population lives below the poverty line.
The government ought to and will certainly do its work in improving the conditions of such families and it has at present various schemes like Vikalp which seeks to provide good quality and low cost medicines. Then there are scholarships for physically handicapped students, delivery huts and many more. The government is supposed to do its part but we as citizens of India can always help the families living below the poverty line in whatever way we can. We can provide them with jobs because the main problem is of unemployment and it is because they are unemployed that they borrow money in huge amounts from debtors and further add on to their problems. It is when they are burdened with a huge debt that they take up an extreme step such as selling their child for an amount as low as rupees sixty two. We can join hands with Non-Governmental Organizations which work towards the education of the BPL families and we can play a part in educating these families and help them in improving their livelihood in every way is possible.