Kendrapara, Jan. 9: Poverty drove a 28-year-old migrant tribal woman to allegedly sell her one-day-old boy for Rs 2,000 on Sunday to a couple here who wanted a male child.

Gita Murmu, mother of the child, who was deserted by her spouse three months ago, gave birth to the child yesterday at the district headquarters hospital here.

The mother of a five-year-old son and three-year-old daughter allegedly handed over the newborn to a couple from Ram Mandir. She allegedly did it because she wasn't sure how to bring up the baby on her own with her partner having left her.

Child Welfare Committee chairman Sishir Kumar Routray said that after receiving a complaint, the district child welfare committee had begun a probe to ascertain the veracity of the allegation that a destitute mother from Kendrapara township had sold her baby boy. The couple who had bought the child for adoption returned him to the mother after the incident became public.

When the Child Welfare Committee members visited the house of the couple had who reportedly adopted the child from the impoverished mother, they found the Gita living with the couple and breastfeeding the baby. "On being questioned, she said she had sold her son because she had no money to raise the child," said Routray.

"How can I feed the baby? I have two more children. My husband has deserted me. I live on daily wages. This couple can take better care of the child. I have taken no money from them," Routray quoted Gita as saying.

The couple who had wanted to adopt the child have a two-year-old daughter. Gita and her baby have now been shifted to the maternity and child care centre of the district headquarters hospital. She will be counselled against giving away her child.

Kendrapara collector Muralidhar Mallick said no proof had emerged so far that the couple had bought the child from Gita. The administration will cover Gita under government social security schemes. Steps are being taken to shift the mother and son to a short-stay home, Mallick said.