Jodhpur:
A seven-day-old healthy baby girl has been waiting in a Jodhpur Hospital to go home. Only no one wants her. Two sets of parents are squabbling instead to claim a baby boy born at the same time. A DNA test will now settle whose child she is.
Both children were born on Sunday last at the Umaid Hospital. Hospital authorities say the baby girl's mother Ms Poonam was told by midwives that she had given birth to a boy. They say it was another woman, Reshmi Devi, who gave birth to a boy. Now both families say the boy child born that day is theirs.
Ms Reshma's family member, Ganga Singh said that the family will take the girl if the DNA matches; however, he adds that they have a strong case to prove that the baby boy belongs to Reshma as all the paperwork proves it. "Reports have Reshmi Devi's signature and records shows that the baby boy is hers," he said.
Hospital authorities say a blood test has indicated that Ms Poonam is the girl's mother, but the family now insists on a DNA test.
Holding the hospital staff responsible for the mix-up, Chain Singh, Ms Poonam's family member, said, "The mother and child are suffering because of the nursing staff's mistake".
"The confusion cannot be cleared until a DNA test is done," he added.
Another member from Ms Poonam's family claims that the doctor had left the baby boy with Ms Poonam after he was born and the doctor replaced the boy with a baby girl three hours later.
While the tests to prove the baby boy's parentage take place, the baby girl lies abandoned and uncared for, serving as yet another example of how unwanted the girl child still remains in some sections of Indian society.