PHOTO: 25-year-old Mother sells newborn boy to childless couple for £130
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A single mother of four was so poor she felt forced to sell her newborn son for £130 in rural India.
Gauri Shah, 32, who lives in a slum near railway tracks in a village, in Jalpaiguri, West Bengal with her three daughters aged between three and eight years old was abandoned by her husband eight months ago when she was expecting her fourth child.
She sold the baby boy to a childless couple but he was rescued after neighbours raised the alarm.
The ten-day-old baby is now being cared for at a children’s home.
His mother gave birth to him on May 25 but was uncertain how she could raise him alone so she sold the tot – who is yet to be named – to a childless couple seven days later.
However, the news soon spread within the village and the local government quickly stepped in and rescued the child.
But Mrs Shah refuses to take him back and the little baby was handed over to a children’s home.
Her only source of income is the money her 70-year-old mother gets after a day begging for hours on the streets.
She said that she feels no remorse about selling off her newborn baby, as she believes it was the best decision for her son and three daughters.
She said: ‘My husband left me eight months ago with three daughters. We depend on whatever money my mother manages to collect. She had to borrow Rs 100 (£1) from our neighbour for my delivery. I have no money to raise my children, how will I take care of another?
‘After I was discharged from the hospital, a childless couple approached me and asked me to give them my son for Rs13000. I accepted the offer, as I had no other option. I thought my son would live a better life with them.’
Mrs Shah said she would take back her son if the government helped her with some benefits.
The state administration has now given her 60 days to think about whether she will accept the baby. After that the infant will be given away for adoption.
Dailymail.co.uk
ABOUT: Nana Kwesi Coomson
[email protected] An Entrepreneur, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporate Communications Executive and Philanthropist. Editor-in-Chief of www.233times.com. A Senior Journalist with Ghanaian Chronicle Newspaper. An alumnus of Adisadel College where he read General Arts. His first degree is in Bachelor of Arts - Political Science (major) and History (minor) from the University of Ghana. He holds MSc in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Energy with Public Relations (PR) from the Robert Gordon University in the United Kingdom. He is a 2018 Mandela Washington Fellow who studied at Clark Atlanta University in USA on the Business and Entrepreneurship track.
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