Unwanted?

Hyderabad, March 20: A girl child was up for sale at a bus stand a little way from Hyderabad yesterday — for Rs 70, the bus fare for her 28-year-old mother, grandfather and aunt to go back home to their tribal hamlet.

The baby lay on a cloth on the bus stand floor at Tuphron town, where she was born three days ago, as her family waited for a buyer.

“All we want is the bus fare for the three of us, my father, sister and myself, around Rs 70 to go back home to our thanda (tribal hamlet) — Kodipalli Somakka thanda — about 65 km from here,” pleaded Ketavat Shanti, as she tried to get rid of her sixth daughter.

They had been at the bus stand for half a day before the media and then the police and NGOs got wind. The unwanted baby was sent to a Sishu Vihar in Hyderabad, 40 km away, and the mother, grandfather and the aunt were let off with a warning.

Shanti’s husband of 10 years, Murahari, an auto driver, had left her and the hamlet three months ago as soon a sex determination test — banned under the law — revealed that their sixth child would also be a girl.

“We have been trying for a son since we married 10 years ago and every time it is turning out to be a girl,” said Shanti, who wants to give away her other daughters too.

Since Murahari left, Shanti and her five daughters have been living with her parents. But her father Govind Nayak, who brought Shanti to a hospital in Tuphron for the delivery, says he cannot feed so many mouths. “I have three more sisters of Shanti to be married off and I refuse to take any extra burden at this old age of 56.”

Daughters are unwanted in the tribal banjara community, more so because of the huge amounts that have to be spent on weddings.

“Other than the wedding gifts and dowry, it is customary for us to feed and supply liquor to the entire village,” Nayak said.

The community is known to get rid of the babies in various ways. “They were either sold away for pittance, or starved to death without feed for days,” said Redya Nayak, tribal welfare minister who has been campaigning against the practice.

About a decade ago, an adoption racket involving hundreds of girl children was busted in the banjara tribal hamlets around Hyderabad and the neighbouring Gulbarga district of Karnataka.