Binod with his new--found father. Picture by Pranab Biswas

Siliguri, June 18: It was a scene one would associate with a potboiler. Only this time it was real.

Right from the securitymen to group D staff and patients of Siliguri Subdivisional Hospital, everyone was present to bid adieu to Binod Raj, their tiny bundle of joy since April 21. The chubby baby, who was abandoned by his mother within three days of his birth, was legally adopted today by a childless couple from Siliguri.

The legal procedure, however, was cumbersome, courtesy, the stringent guidelines laid down in the Child Welfare (Care and Protection) Act 2000.

Protima Bagchi, the chairperson of Child Welfare Committee, which looks after child welfare-related matters in Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar, said: “It is mandatory for hospitals and nursing homes of these three districts to inform us about abandoned or unclaimed children. We keep a list of such children for any one who approaches us for adoption. An inquiry is first carried out to verify the background of the family before the child is handed over to them for a year.”

“Another inquiry is carried out after a year and a district court judge then announces if the child will remain permanently with the adoptive parents,” she added.

Bagchi claimed that couples in the three districts preferred to adopt girls. “Seven couples have adopted children from Siliguri Subdivisional Hospital in the last two years. Five settled for girls. Couples say they want a girl because boys tend to suffer from an identity crisis when they come to know the truth.”

Hospital superintendent Tapan Saha and the nurses of the paediatric ward were happy that Binod had found a home, but felt sad at the thought of losing him. Gita Devi Pradhan and Panna Mallik, the two nurses the baby seemed most fond of, wept while placing him on Bagchi’s lap. Clad in a new dress, Binod left the hospital with his government employee mother and trader father.

“He was born on Budhbar (Wednesday), so we will name him after the sun god Arkojyoti or Budhaditya,” said his mother.