The mother is seen with the newborn, sitting inside a culvert, at a village in Odisha
An elephant destroyed her house six months ago. She was pregnant then, and was left with no roof above her head. Months later, she gave birth to a baby under a dirty culvert where she herself and the newborn could have contracted life-threatening infections.
The new mother, a resident of a village in Odisha's Mayurbhanj district, did not get any help from the government after her house was destroyed by the elephant, a zila parishad (district council) member said.
"One mother had to give birth in a culvert. She has no shelter... She never got any assistance from the government, in spite of so many schemes in place," said Sarina Hamran, a zila parishad member at the village 310 kilometres from state capital Bhubaneswar.
The woman, Pramila Tiria, is seen in a photo sitting with her back on the concrete culvert, her hands wrapped around the newborn who is sleeping on a piece of dirty cloth. The mother appears to be in a state of severe exhaustion.
The district council member said Ms Tiria did not get any ASHA services. The Accredited Social Health Activist or ASHA is one of the key components of the National Rural Health Mission, meant to provide every village in the country with a trained female community health worker.
On its website, the National Health Mission says "ASHA will be the first port of call for any health related demands of deprived sections of the population, especially women and children, who find it difficult to access health services."
Villagers alleged the incident reflects the indifferent approach of the forest officers and the government authorities in the district who did not help the women for the last six months.
The additional district magistrate of Mayurbanj told news agency ANI that action will be taken against officials who did not intervene in the matter.
"Let me examine the situation. I came to know about the incident a few months back that the house was destroyed by an elephant. It will now be enquired by the forest officials. After that we will rehabilitate the family," the official said.
With inputs from ANI